Church Converted to Courthouse

St. Paul's Community Baptist Church joined forces with Brooklyn Law Enforcement and District Attorney Charles Hynes to transform the church into a makeshift courtroom. The pilot program, otherwise known as Project Safe Surrender, enabled East New York, Brooklyn residents to clear their summons and warrants in a less intimidating atmosphere than that of Downtown Brooklyn's courthouse. Hynes and Associate Rev. Lesley Shannon hoped that the sanctity of the church would encourage some of the 250,000 Brooklynites with C-summons or warrants (for minor violations such as jumping a subway turnstile) to clear their records and get back to job hunting with a clean slate. Hynes will run an evaluation of the pilot program before he considers expanding it beyond East New York.

As published in the Brooklyn Downtown Star, July 2:
http://bit.ly/a14VUa