Neighborhood Opportunity Network Analysis

Currently, NYC is experimenting with an alternative to incarceration called Neighborhood Opportunity Networks (NeON). These centers are part of a new model of community centric corrections programs known as justice reinvestment. Reinvestment programs are intended to reduce recidivism and reroute the money that would have been spent on incarceration to crime prevention programs instead. (Clear, et al, 2012). The Department of Probation (DOP) has begun placing NeON facilities in communities with the highest concentrations of residents sentenced to probation. The goal is to save money by diverting offenders from prison and providing services and opportunities for them to become successful members of their communities. The motto of NeON centers
The intent of NeON centers is to benefit individual probationers and at the same time benefit the whole community by keeping families together and providing direction, education, and other needed services.
NeON centers have a friendlier and more welcoming design, shorter waiting room times, staff refers to probationers “clients”, and most locations share facilities with other social service agencies (Urban Omnibus, 2012). These changes are all intended to create a more welcoming and environment, reduce stress levels, prevent probationers from missing entire days of work or school to see their probation officer, and provide needed services such as housing and job services. By putting these centers physically closer to people who most regularly use them, both officers managing cases and those on probation can benefit. When probation
My neighborhood would, as of now, not be the most effective place for testing a NeON facility. Also, I believe that building a NeOn facility in my neighborhood would cause some controversy. There has been an ongoing controversy over three homeless shelters that exists in my neighborhood. There is resistance to these shelters from the local community because there have been multiple complaints of excessive noise, street harassment, public drunkenness, and public urination attributed to some shelter residents. There have been a few community meetings with the local councilperson to try and improve communication and resolve outstanding complaints about the shelters, especially the management of one in particular. A shelter is different from a NeON facility, but I think local residents in my neighborhood would, at this time, likely object to a center for people on probation due to their current experiences with the shelters. It may be wrong to assume all organizations perform the same, but in order for a NeON center to be successful here, the Department of Probation would need to work closely with residents to communicate and dispels fears about this new type of facility and its