Nassau County D.A. Singas speaks to the power of women in government

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In honor of Women’s History Month, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas spoke to a group of residents — most of them women — at a community forum hosted by the League of Women Voters on March 20 at the Levittown Public Library. The program shed light on Singas’s work in the D.A.’s office to curb crime countywide, particularly in areas related to gender.
“I feel like women and moms are really at the heart of our families,” Singas said, “and we have to help them get through whatever crisis it is that they’re facing so that their entire family can rise above whatever the issue is.”
She referenced two initiatives that address issues of gender as it pertains to crime: the Woman’s Opportunity Rehabilitation Center and Closer to the Crib. League of Women Voters member Barbara Epstein, of Wantagh, explained that the idea behind the programs is to give people a second chance.
“When people get involved in these specific programs, there’s less recidivism, which means they tend not to get convicted again,” Epstein said. “It’s important for people to realize they have a place to go, and if they have a problem they can call the district attorney’s office and be directed to any one of the various agencies within the department.”

WORC
The Woman’s Opportunity Rehabilitation Center, based in Hempstead, is a community correction program that offers an alternative to incarceration for female offenders in and around Nassau County. Singas said it is exclusive to women, and added, “It gives women the tools to become self-sufficient and more empowered.”
The center has become a vital component of the criminal justice system, according to its website, because a judge can recommend that a defendant use its services instead of serving jail time. WORC offers a six-month reporting program, which provides a number of services, including court advocacy for pre-sentence female offenders, educational assistance, vocational services, personal counseling and life-skills workshops.
In addition to job training, Singas said, the center also gives female offenders “hope and dignity” that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Closer to the Crib
Closer to the Crib is a collaborative program between the Nassau County district attorney’s office and the Adelphi University Institute for Parenting. Its aim is to reduce recidivism in criminally offending parents of young children and to end the cycle of intergenerational criminal justice involvement.
Statistics show, Singas said, that if a child is raised in a home where one or both parents are caught up in the criminal justice system, the child will likely be, too, as an adult. Closer to the Crib, she said, surrounds families with services they need to avoid this cycle of offense.
The 12-month program promotes positive, developmental outcomes for children of offending parent through evidence-based trauma treatment, providing comprehensive assessment, case planning, intensive case management and, when needed, child-parent psychotherapy. The idea, according to Closer to the Crib’s website, is to support a healthy relational environment and reduce the effects of toxic stress, thus decreasing the likelihood that parents will re-offend.

Women in the law
Rounding out the talk, Singas spoke to the importance of seeing women in high-powered positions in local government. She recalled preparing notes for a lecture on the topic while watching a basketball game with her daughter, who, having a career prosecutor as a mother, was used to such an idea. For others, Singas said, seeing women in the law is “a big deal.”
“Only a third of our judges are women; 19 percent of equity partners in law firms are women; only 13 D.A.’s in the entire state, out of 62, are women,” she said. “Having so many women in power in the county is great for all of our daughters to see,” she added, noting County Executive Laura Curran and Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen. “They have other women to look up to as role models.”
Epstein said it was important for the D.A. to impart this knowledge, as it sets a precedent. “A woman, from my perspective, brings a different perspective to the situation, and if they have a desire to help, they should get involved,” Epstein said. “It’s important for young people, particularly young girls and women, to know they can make a difference.”