Night Court Support Specialist

Center for Alternative•New York, NY

3d•$66,000 - $72,000•Hybrid

About The Position

CASES is a New York City agency at the forefront of the intersection between behavioral health and the criminal justice system. Our mission is to increase public safety through innovative services that reduce crime and incarceration, improve behavioral health, promote recovery and rehabilitation, and create opportunities for success in the community. The CASES Court services department services facilitates court mandates or endorsed programming at all points in the criminal legal process. CASES operates alternative to detention (ATD) and alternative to incarceration (ATI) community based programs that are facilitated by the NYS Office of Court Administration (OCA) judiciary. CASES interfaces with multiple stakeholders to support these ATD and ATI program options for thousands of defendants in multiple boroughs. Specifically the arraignment team screens approximately 10,000 defendants per year for ATD and ATI programs, Supervised Releasee and newSTART. Additionally, the ATI intake assessment team screens 500 amount per year to divert people into 3 (three) CASES community based programs, Reframing Opportunity Alternatives and Resilience (ROAR), Nathaniel Community Success (NCS) and Nathaniel Assertive Community Treatment (NACT). All Court services teams are dedicated to the CASES mission, facilitating release and positive court outcomes. This role will support a new initiative within the Supervise Release program run by CASES in Manhattan. The role will be in court during the critical hours needed to support arraignments. Furthermore this role will be unique of building and maintaining a caseload from the courtroom to the community nightly.

Requirements

Master's degree in related field
At least 5 years of work experience providing peer support to individuals with serious mental illness and criminal justice involvement
Proficiency with computer and electronic case records

Nice To Haves

CASAC or CASAC-T
Fluency in Spanish

Responsibilities

Be flexible and innovative in the first of its kind position at CASES of court and community work
Provide support for Manhattan Supervised Release (SRP) participants immediately upon release from their court appearance
Maintain a caseload of all eligible participants to be seen at the mandated frequency by the court at a minimum and multiple other community contacts
Assist in de-escalation of and crisis management, when appropriate after the clients release
Assess and provide services to clients to address housing, income support, education and vocational training, social supports, employment, and primary care needs
Provide transitional support for clients to their home, shelters, treatment programs and/or other services to ensure and secure connection to programming
Assist clients with linkages to and systems navigation within the behavioral health, human services, and criminal justice systems as appropriate
Provide mobile crisis response to clients in distress from their court appearance and possible aid their transport to a hospital
Devote substantial time creating and maintaining relationships with human service providers around NYC who are receptive to accepting CASES clients directly from arraignments
Develop and maintain excellent professional relationships with judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, and other court partners to facilitate program admissions and maintain CASES’ credibility in the Manhattan Criminal and Supreme Courts
Provide timely and accurate notification to the court about participant non-compliance (when participants are missing/absconded, fail to report, and are rearrested)
Provide culturally competent and anti-racist services in the court 1) in accordance with CASES’ policies and the delivery of excellent court services to address the needs of youth and young adults, adults, and individuals with behavioral health needs and 2) that are responsive to the race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and criminal legal history of program participants