Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance will no longer be prosecuting subway turnstile jumpers in Manhattan.
The DA told CBS New York, “My belief is that failure to pay a $3 subway fare, while it is wrong, doesn’t necessarily justify arrest, prosecution, and the accumulation of a criminal record.”
The idea behind giving most cases a ‘DTP’ (decline to prosecute) is to hopefully reduce “unnecessary incarceration” for “low-level, non-violent offenses.” According to CBS, about 18,000 people were arrested last year for turnstile jumping with about 8,000 of those being in Manhattan.
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