According to a recent report from The Daily Mail, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s deputy favors restorative justice for violent offenders.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Meg Reiss’s advocacy for restorative justice has led her to oppose the imprisonment of a man who killed his friend. She has urged prosecutors to challenge the idea that offenders are inherently “bad dudes.”
Recently, Alvin Bragg and his team have been under fire for their handling of the Donald Trump case. Critics have accused Bragg of prioritizing the Trump investigation over other criminal cases, leading to accusations that he has let violent offenders and career criminals off the hook, all while his team is pursuing Trump.
In January 2022, Bragg appointed Brooklyn and Nassau County lawyer Reiss as his executive team leader. Reiss’s track record in promoting restorative justice precedes her appointment to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She was Chief of Social Justice in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, where she advocated for restorative justice, where criminals meet their victims as part of their penalty and recovery.
She discussed an “extraordinary” murder case that “seemed appropriate for restorative practice rather than a carceral sentence” in May 2021.
According to Reiss:
“The only survivor of the victim’s family was his daughter who actually had never met her father and because they’re going through a restorative practice right now, it’s the first time that she’s actually ever getting to know her dad through the person who has been accused with his death. I think it’s such a complex process for both people but I think that everybody comes out of it in certainly in a new way.”
