[From Our Partners] Evaluation of the West Harlem Community Reentry and Restoration Project
The West Harlem Community Reentry and Restoration Project (WHCRRP) was a collaborative, community-driven initiative funded by Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII), a partnership between CUNY ISLG and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (DANY). It was created in response to a June 2024 law enforcement intervention (LEI)—a result of ongoing violence between rival gangs from those two housing developments—that led to the arrest and indictment of 103 individuals living in the Manhattanville and Grant public housing developments and surrounding areas in West Harlem.
Although the LEI reduced criminal activity in the area, it had some adverse impacts on the community, including increased mistrust of the police, trauma, and challenges surrounding reentry for those who served time as a result of the LEI.
The Osborne Association was funded to implement the Program. Osborne partnered with the Tayshana Chicken Murphy Foundation (TCMF) and the Living Redemption Youth Opportunity Hub (Living Redemption). to provide services to the 103 arrested individuals, their family members, and members of the community at large to reduce any negative effects of the LEI on the community.
The program set out to:
promote healing among community members and between the community and law enforcement,
support community members who have recently returned or are soon to return from incarceration, and
strengthen and empower community-led anti-violence efforts.
Through credible messengers, restorative justice, and a capacity-building incubator, WHCRRP provided direct services to those in Manhattanville and the Grant Houses and surrounding area in the West Harlem community.
Through CJII funding, RTI International conducted a comprehensive, mixed-methods evaluation of the project. This 3.5-year evaluation project, implemented January 2021–June 2024, had two components: a Process Evaluation of the Program’s implementation, which was released in October 2023, and an Outcome Evaluation exploring the associations among Program participation, recidivism (defined as rearrest), and the reentry experiences of those involved in the 2014 LEI (e.g., connection to services, supervision compliance, and personal resilience).
See our blog for a look at how participants felt toward law enforcement, as well as the relationship between the WHCRRP program and participants’ sense of belonging in the community.
ABOUT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE INVESTMENT INITIATIVE
Under former Manhattan District Attorney Cy R. Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office created the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) in order to use $250 million seized in international financial crime prosecutions to invest in transformative projects that will improve public safety, prevent crime, and promote a fair and efficient justice system. CJII is a first-of-its-kind effort to support innovative community projects that fill critical gaps and needs in New York City’s criminal legal system infrastructure.
CJII focuses on three investment areas—crime prevention, diversion and reentry, and supports for survivors of crime. The CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance manages and provides technical assistance to CJII contractors, and conducts oversight and performance measurement throughout the lifetime of the initiative.