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APRI Highlights - Summer 2002
National Center for Community Prosecution
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Director, National Center for Community Prosecution
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APRI is pleased to welcome Marcia Cunningham as a senior attorney with the National Center for Community Prosecution (NCCP). Marcia Cunningham has over 10 years experience as an attorney, including five years as an assistant district attorney in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York and two years with APRI’s National Traffic Law Center.
As community prosecution initiatives continue to emerge in smaller jurisdictions, it is important to balance their needs with the available resources. Many of our course attendees who come from smaller jurisdictions note that while community prosecution is a wonderful concept, they lack sufficient staff and other resources to make the program work successfully. Marcia brings the rural jurisdiction perspective to her position and will greatly assist NCCP as she and other staff develop course curricula and materials to meet these jurisdictions’ needs. Hearing from a colleague with a similar background can help these attendees understand that although limited resources present a challenge, community prosecution initiatives can and do thrive in smaller jurisdictions.
With ongoing support from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), NCCP is working closely with the community prosecution leadership sites and other community prosecution technical assistance providers to plan and conduct regional workshops in Indianapolis, IN; Austin, TX; and Brooklyn, NY. The workshops will be held this fall, and enrollment is limited to the BJA community prosecution grantees. The first day will focus on basic concepts in community prosecution, such as initiating the planning process, identifying resources, building partnerships and working with the community. The remainder of the training will focus on more advanced topics for community prosecutors regardless of their experience level. These topics will include ethical considerations, the role of the city attorney, abating nuisance houses and individuals, combating neighborhood drug houses, aberrant street behavior, working with the media and connecting the community with the courts. The goal is to help strengthen the community prosecution movement by providing training and encouraging jurisdictions in close proximity to collaborate with one another to solve common problems.
APRI, in conjunction with BJA, will host the 2nd National Community Prosecution Conference in Washington, D.C. Scheduled for April 13-16, 2003, at the Wyndham Hotel, conference enrollment is open to everyone interested in community prosecution. This conference will incorporate ideas discussed at the regional workshops as well as emerging national trends in community prosecution. It will celebrate the successes of community prosecution and address ways to confront the challenges prosecutors face in their efforts to combat crime and reclaim their neighborhoods. The conference will also examine how the philosophy of community prosecution can be applied to a wide range of offenses, including juvenile crime, drug-related offenses, hate crimes, gun violence and homeland security.
For more information about any of these topics, or if you have other questions or comments about community prosecution, please feel free to contact the NCCP at (703) 549-4253 or communityprosecution@ndaa-apri.org.
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