NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The fatal shooting of a Guyana-born New York City police officer on Tuesday has turned a spotlight on a court-mandated drug treatment program that kept the accused killer out of jail as part of a national effort to find alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders.
City officials reacted angrily to the news that Tyrone Howard, 30, had avoided prison for dealing crack cocaine earlier this year through a drug diversion program.
“He’s a poster boy for not being diverted,” said Police Commissioner William Bratton on Wednesday.
But advocates for such programs, intended in part to decrease overcrowding in prisons, warned against drawing conclusions based on one incident.
“It’s all about reducing probabilities,” said Jeffrey Butts, director of the research and evaluation center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. “That doesn’t mean that things won’t happen.”
There are 2,734 so-called drug courts in the United States, with the first established in 1989, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
A 2009 report by the New York State Unified Court System said the average number of active participants statewide per month was 7,253.
Howard has been charged with murdering Officer Randolph Holder, 33, with a bullet to the head on Tuesday night in the city’s East Harlem neighborhood.