A Better Path
Urban Ventures’ innovative “Pathways to New Beginnings” has become a national model for how to help nonviolent firearm offenders and spurred a similar program for youth
Minneapolis Deputy City Attorney Mary Ellen Heng described the first Urban Ventures Pathways graduation as one of one of the best moments of her life. Three young men, all convicted of weapons charges, approached her to ask if she was the city prosecutor and she tentatively answered in the affirmative, she was taken aback when all of them shook her hand vigorously and said “Thank you for this program; we’re so happy we did this.”
It marks an incredible change in the relationship between prosecutors and defendants involving nonviolent weapons charges. In 2016, public prosecutors in Minneapolis made a troubling discovery: almost every gross misdemeanor gun case they tried involved a young Black man. In fact, from 2014 to 2016, 88% were non-white, and 75% of convictions were young and Black, despite black males making up less than 6% of the Hennepin County population.
In addition to the bias in prosecution another glaring issue arose: it wasn’t making a difference. “Our review of years of data showed that around 70% of those convicted of gross misdemeanor weapons charges went on to commit another offense within three years—with long prison sentences for many young defendants under the age of 30, even for non-violent offenses,” shared Deputy City Attorney Mary Ellen Heng, adding that it was appaling that “we were doing almost nothing to change the trajectory of these individuals’ lives.”
Thankfully, the City Attorney’s office refused to accept these startling insights and began in earnest to find a new approach. Minneapolis sought a new program for nonviolent gun offenders, and Urban Ventures answered.
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