Building on the success of 2016, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office brings Begin Again to Bedford-Stuyvesant this April to give Brooklyn residents an opportunity to deal with summonses for low-level offenses quickly and easily right in their community. These summons warrants – ordered when people fail to answer a ticket for minor quality of life offenses such as drinking alcohol in public or being in a park after closing – have ballooned into a total of over a million in New York City, with about a quarter originating in Brooklyn. These open warrants weigh down an overburdened courts system and can hold back individuals who have them on their records.
Of the 2,588 Begin Again participants who have attended events so far, no one has been arrested and all have received consultation with attorneys from Legal Aid on how to resolve their warrants and on any other legal issues they had.