The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Friday that it will not prosecute most “turnstile jumping” cases and minor drug offenses, effectively eliminating 20,000 criminal cases a year.
“The criminal prosecution of these low-level, non-violent offenses should not be a part of a reformed 21st-century justice system,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a news release. “Absent a demonstrated public safety risk, criminally prosecuting New Yorkers accused of these offenses does not make us safer.”
