Program part of a larger plan to combat gun violence this summer, DA says
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez plans to launch an ambitious pilot program to provide those identified as at-risk of gang violence with targeted city resources and services and, after months of what he deems “restorative justice,” have rival gang members sit down with one another and agree to lay down arms.
Project Restore, as the program is being called, would be the first of its kind in a major American city, Gonzalez says, and is based on the DA’s oft-stated guiding principle that neighborhood violence can be reduced by identifying a small number of individuals responsible for or at risk of committing violent acts. In the case of the latter, that includes state interventions with resources and services to support a life outside the criminal justice system.
