Thomas Breen photo
Alejandro Pabon-Rey, new Hill South LEAD liaison.
Alejandro Pabon-Rey started attending community management team meetings after his college advisor told him that the monthly meetings were a good place to learn about local politics and issues.
One year later, the lifelong Hill resident and Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) graduate is working as the team’s community liaison for a new experimental, pre-arrest diversion initiative designed to keep his neighbors who struggle with addiction out of jail and on the path to recovery, employment and stable housing.
Pabon-Rey, 24, is the Hill South community liaison for the city’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program.
He was at Wednesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Hill South Community Management Team (HSCMT) in the cafeteria of Betsy Ross Arts School on Kimberly Avenue to update his neighbors on the latest with LEAD, which the city launched in the Hill and Downtown neighborhoods in November 2017.
Unfortunately, Pabon-Rey told the team, there has not been much progress. Four months into the program’s two-year pilot, LEAD has struggled to enroll participants.
Earlier this year, the program’s first participant died after years of struggling with homelessness and substance abuse.
According to Lt. Jason Minardi, the top cop for the Hill neighborhood, a “few people” are currently in the program. Minardi declined to share more information for confidentiality reasons. “We are always working on tailoring the program to New Haven,” he stated. “Unlike other states, we have a good social net in place. We are on pace with other programs around the country when they started.”
LEAD brings together a diverse array of public and not-for-profit partners, including the police department, the city’s Community Services Administration (CSA), and the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, with the goal of redirecting low-level offenders engaged in drug abuse, prostitution and other non-violent street crimes away from the criminal justice system and towards a case worker and rehabilitative services.
The program was founded in Seattle and has been adopted in Albany, Baltimore, and Bangor, Maine.
Hill South Community Management Team at meeting.
As the Hill South community liaison, Pabon-Rey is charged with canvassing his neighborhood and identifying potential candidates for the program. He also serves as an approachable go-between for the program participants, the community management team, the New Haven police, and the other LEAD partners.
Pabon-Rey grew up and currently lives on Second Street between Howard Avenue and Hallock Avenue. Both of his parents were born in Puerto Rico, where he still has family living in San Juan and Bayamón.
He attended Hamden Hall Country Day School and studied political science at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), where he earned his B.A. in May 2017. He currently works as an assistant varsity basketball coach at Platt High School in Meriden.
Pabon-Rey’s advisor at SCSU was Jonathan Wharton, an active member of the Hill South community management team and the current chairman of the city’s Republican Town Committee (RTC).
Pabon-Rey said that he took an urban politics course with Wharton that focused on politics in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford. He said that he and his classmates attended many meetings at City Hall as part of the course. He also served as a student intern in the city’s tax collector office.
Pabon-Rey said that Wharton encouraged him to check out the team’s meetings and to get to know its leaders and participants. When HSCMT chair Sarah McIver told the team about the LEAD program and the need for a community liaison, Wharton encouraged Pabon-Rey to apply.
Wharton told the Independent via email that Pabon-Rey has long been interested in community and local politics, which is Wharton’s own area of study. He said that Pabon-Rey had been attending community meetings long before he got involved with the HSCMT and LEAD.
“So many already knew him at the meetings and he became especially interested in a specific community relations position,” Wharton said. When the LEAD position came up, he thought that Pabon-Rey was a natural fit. “Most importantly,” Wharton continued, “he’s hoping to mentor kids and help his community even further in the future.”
Read about the community liaisons for Downtown hereand the Hill North here.
Pabon-Rey said that from an early age he got used to seeing neighbors struggling with alcohol and other drugs, hanging out on street corners up and down Kimberly Avenue.
“For the neighborhood overall, this would have made things safer,” Pabon-Rey said, thinking about how a program like LEAD would have impacted his neighborhood if it were around when he was growing up. “There wouldn’t have been as much second guessing as to where you can and can’t go.”
“Obviously, a program like this, where you’re not putting people in jail,” he continued, “you’re giving them resources to better themselves and to better the community at the same time. I think there’s a lot of benefit to that.”
Pabon-Rey said that the toughest part of getting people involved with the program thus far has been that many of the potential candidates have been rendered ineligible because of the more serious nature of their criminal records or current activity.
People convicted of felonies or burglaries are not allowed to join LEAD. The program is designed exclusively for non-violent, low-level offenders.
Pabon-Rey said that he and his fellow community liaisons are now trying to bring people into the program through “social contacts.”
One way into the program is through pre-arrest diversion: that is, a police officer apprehends someone for criminal activity, and then offers that person the choice of engaging in the program instead of being arrested.
Pabon-Rey said that that pre-arrest method often finds law enforcement interacting with people who are already ineligible for the program because of their more serious rap sheets.
However, people can also join the program voluntarily through “social contacts,” meaning that they reach out directly to Pabon-Rey or another community liaison and request that they or someone they know try out the program.
“We want to make people more comfortable,” Pabon-Rey said about how best to get people to engage with LEAD via social contacts.
“We just have to pitch it more and more, and be persistent,” he said.
He said that the LEAD team members are currently drafting pamphlets and other handouts about the program, which they will distribute throughout the neighborhoods covered by the pilot.
“I hope to ensure that the needs and wants of the community are being heard and met by members of the LEAD program team,” Pabon-Rey told the Independent via email after Tuesday night’s meeting. “I hope to build a positive relationship between members of the community and the program administration so that the program can thrive in New Haven and ultimately become another success story. Despite the slow start, I believe the program has great potential.”