August 19, 2002

PROSECUTOR GIAQUINTO ANNOUNCES
OPERATION COMMUNITY GIVEBACK

Trenton, NJ – Today at Mercer Cemetery, Mercer County Prosecutor Daniel G. Giaquinto, joined by Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, announced that the United States Department of Justice has awarded a Community Prosecution Enhancement Grant to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office was one of only 75 jurisdictions nationally to receive the grant.

According to Prosecutor Giaquinto, the enhancement grant enabled him to assign Agent Ray Stout, a former Trenton police officer with 27 years of service, to act as the community justice coordinator of the restorative justice component of the Community Justice Unit.  Agent Stout joins Administrative Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and Agents Wesley Richardson and Bob Van Hise as full-time members of the unit.

Prosecutor Giaquinto explained that members of his Community Justice Unit met with the department directors in Mayor Palmer’s administration to determine where his office’s restorative justice efforts could best be utilized.  The restorative justice concept is part of a national movement to have quality-of-life and low-level offenders pay their debt to society through community service in the area where they offended.

The Community Justice Unit and Mayor Palmer’s Departments of Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture; Inspections; Sanitation; Public Works; and Health developed a list of community service worksites throughout Trenton. 

Through the community service program, dubbed “Operation Community Giveback,” defendants are sentenced by the municipal court to perform community service.  These defendants are typically those who have failed to pay fines on quality-of-life offenses and are ordered to perform community service in lieu of being sent to jail.  Agent Stout then assigns the community service workers to a worksite, supervises them, and reports back to the municipal court on their progress.  The difference between Operation Community Giveback and the existing community service and/or SLAP programs is that the defendant pays no fee to enter the program, and if a defendant fails to appear, the matter is immediately sent to the prosecutor’s Fugitive Unit to execute the bench warrant.

Through Operation Community Giveback, community service workers have already completed an extensive clean-up of Mercer Cemetery; completed clean-ups of vacant city-owned properties; began maintenance projects at the Trenton Municipal Court and Hetzel Field; placed a worker at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie and additional workers at the East Trenton Community Center; and assisted with the May Day activities at Cadwalader Park.

“Operation Community Giveback is an excellent program that allows offenders to make a positive contribution to the city of Trenton and other Mercer County municipalities,” said Mayor Palmer.

“Mercer Cemetery symbolizes the long-standing partnership between the city of Trenton and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office,” Prosecutor Giaquinto said.  “It is the final resting place of so many who have contributed to the fabric of this city and this county.  It is our hope that this program, in some small way, can continue that tradition.”