|
DENVER DA'S OFFICE HONORED
BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
November 8, 2001
Contact:
Lynn Kimbrough, 720-913-9025
The Denver District Attorney's Office is being recognized for excellence
in community prosecution and has been designated a national Community
Prosecution Leadership Site by the U.S. Department of Justice. The
designation includes a $225,000 grant to strengthen and continue community
prosecution efforts and community court planning in Denver. As one of only
nine Leadership Sites, the Denver DA's Office will serve as a national
model and resource for other agencies and will help chart the future of
community prosecution. The honor highlights the Denver DA's Office and its
work in many areas:
-Involving the community as a partner in the justice system
-Developing prevention and intervention programs
-Coordinating the law enforcement response to neighborhood crime
problems
-Focusing prosecution resources where they are needed in
neighborhoods
Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, Jr. created the Community Justice
Unit more than five years ago to address quality of life issues in
individual neighborhoods and communities in Denver.
This unit utilizes Community Justice Councils in
Globeville, Valverde,
Westwood, Park Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods to strategically plan
ways to address crime issues at the neighborhood level. These Councils are
made up of members of those communities. The Denver DA's Office also
coordinates Community Accountability Boards in 26 neighborhoods in which
local citizens focus on repairing the harm caused by crime. This work
includes having juvenile offenders meet with their victims and
representatives of the victimized community.
|
