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Bureau Chief:
Assistant District Attorney
Karen H. Rankin
One of the key components in reducing crime in Queens County has been the strong and sustained effort aimed at narcotics trafficking by the District Attorney’s narcotics units. The Narcotic Trials Bureau, which also encompasses the Alternative Sentencing Program, is one of these units.
The Narcotic Trials Bureau is a group of 17 Assistant District Attorneys, whose mission is to prosecute street dealers arrested on felony drug possession or sale charges, as well as a variety of other felony charges, including but not limited to robberies, attempted murders and assaults. Assistant District Attorneys in the Narcotic Trials Bureau focus their efforts on prosecuting those individuals arrested as a result of police observations of transactions between two or more individuals or after the sale of drugs to an undercover police officer. The Narcotic Trials Bureau is also responsible for prosecuting individuals charged with smuggling heroin and cocaine into and throughout the country both at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports. This is a shared prosecution between the Queens District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District.
Douglas Knight, the Director of The Alternative Sentencing Program, is an integral part of the Bureau. He is responsible for coordinating the screening of defendants office wide who are eligible for any type of alternative treatment. The Alternative Sentencing Program is responsible for screening and monitoring addicts and/or defendants with mental illness who have been placed in community based treatment programs (i.e. long term residential treatment, outpatient and detox) in lieu of incarceration. Presently, these programs include the “Extended Willard Program” a state run program; DTAP (Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison), a substance abuse program for second felony offenders who would otherwise face mandatory jail sentences; the Queens Treatment Court, (QTC), a program for non-predicate first felony offenders that utilizes a great deal of judicial monitoring, weekly drug testing and the use of graduated sanctions and rewards; and the Queens Mental Health Court, (QMHC), a program for defendants charged with a felony offense where the crime charged was motivated principally by a mental illness or the defendant suffers from a history of documented mental illness. It is a problem-solving, non-adversarial court utilizing the collaborative team approach to manage and monitor the defendants.
Queens is among the best, if not the best statistically, when having defendants complete mandated treatment. For example, QTC generated a large 47% reduction in recidivism within three years of the initial arrest; and a similarly dramatic 52% reduction when isolating the one year post program period. Additionally, over the past ten years, QTC has posted an impressive 75% retention and 70% completion rate. These significant impacts are among the greatest detected in the drug court literature to date.
Additionally, Queens DTAP has achieved great success. Since its inception, over 800 defendants have participated in DTAP with a retention rate of 75% and a successful completion rate of 70%, the highest in New York State.
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