Marijuana Possession Arrests In New York City — How Times Have Changed

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Research Brief

A series of reports summarizing current research from CJA

No. 40

May 2016

Acting Executive Director & Director, Operations Dept. Peter C. Kiers Acting Deputy Director & Director, Research Dept., Richard R. Peterson, Ph.D. Research Brief Editor & Deputy Director, Research Dept., Mary T. Phillips, Ph.D. Graphics & Production, Raymond P. Caligiure Communications Associate, Lauren A. Wilson CJA is a not-for-profit corporation that provides a variety of criminal justice services under a contract with the City of New York. CJA staff interview defendants arrested in New York City, make recommendations for pretrial release, and notify released defendants of upcoming court dates. CJA also operates two supervised release programs for nonviolent felony clients in Queens and Manhattan. The Research Department conducts studies addressing a broad array of criminal justice policy concerns. The Research Brief series summarizes the results of some of these studies. New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc. 52 Duane Street New York, NY 10007 PHONE: 646 213-2500 FAX: 646 213-2650 WEB: www.nycja.org

© 2016 NYC Criminal Justice Agency, Inc.

MARIJUANA POSSESSION ARRESTS IN NEW YORK CITY — HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED By Mary T. Phillips, Ph.D.

Through two major policy initiatives, New York City has recently attempted to reduce the negative impact of low-level marijuana arrests on the lives of tens of thousands of New Yorkers annually, and to alleviate the disproportionate burden of these arrests on blacks and Hispanics. In May 2013, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, directed the police to issue a Desk Appearance Ticket (DAT) in most marijuana possession arrests. This initiative was aimed at reducing detention between arrest and arraignment, allowing most defendants in such cases to remain free until their first court date. In November 2014, the new mayor, Bill DeBlasio, and new Police Commissioner, William

Bratton, went further. They announced that possession of small amounts of marijuana would no longer be grounds for arrest. Since that time, the policy has been to issue a non-criminal summons rather than arresting eligible suspects found with less than 25 grams of marijuana. CJA recently published results from a research project investigating the effects of these policies on the volume and processing of marijuana arrests, focusing particularly on ethnic disparity. The data used in the full report included arrests and court outcomes through February 2015. In this Brief, we summarize the highlights of that research with updated data including all arrests through December 31, 2015.

This Research Brief is adapted from Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests, New York City 2012–2014 (2015) by Mary T. Phillips, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Research Department The full report is available on CJA’s web site: www.nycja.org/library.php Systems Programming: Wayne Nehwadowich Address comments to the author at mphillips@nycja.org Please cite as follows, adapted to your citation style: Phillips, Mary T. 2016. “Marijuana Possession Arrests in New York City — How Times Have Changed.” Research Brief series, no. 40. New York: New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc. The mission of the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, Inc., is to assist the courts and the City in reducing unnecessary pretrial detention.


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