Manhattan DA: Young Defendants Hurt by Broken Prosecution System

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NEW YORK — In a spirited and candid discussion Tuesday morning between elected officials and researchers at a conference on incarceration reform at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said that the business model of how his office operates “does not make sense” and that it fails young, minor offenders who pile up misdemeanors until they face serious consequences in the criminal justice system.

“I think in almost in every prosecution office I know of, at least state prosecutors, as a business model we don’t make sense, because we put our youngest assistants, and not the most resources on the largest number of cases we deal with,” he said.

One Mom to Another on Cops Who Allegedly Smashed Boy Through Window: Don’t Stop Fighting

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NEW YORK — Constance Malcolm’s life has slowly started to get back to normal, as normal as it can get after a killing. But this week has dredged up bad memories. Her buoyant, warm smile falters, and tears well in her eyes as she looks at the picture. It’s of a 14-year old boy in a hospital bed, connected to a mess of wires and tubes. Gauze patches are taped to his head and he wears a dazed look on his face.

Cops Smash Boy Through Window in the Bronx

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he 14-year-old boy sat on the stoop of Hookah Stop in the Bronx, blood pouring from his chest and filling his lungs, and thought: This is what it’s like to die. Moments before 11 o’clock Saturday night, the boy, Javier Payne, had been smashed through the store’s plate glass window by a police officer who had stopped him after an altercation with a man on the street, witnesses said. The boy was bleeding critically and under arrest.