Call 212-577-3300
Projects, Units & Initiatives
The Legal Aid Society’s MICA Project is a pioneering and nationally recognized initiative that has transformed the criminal legal system’s response to individuals with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and other disabilities.
Operating in every borough, MICA pairs mental health attorneys with social worker mitigation specialists to combine legal and clinical expertise, presenting clients as whole individuals and not just their charges. This collaborative model seeks to connect clients to community care from day one, promotes treatment-based alternatives to incarceration, and works to dismantle cycles of incarceration and psychiatric hospitalization while advancing reforms to strengthen New York’s treatment court landscape and mental health crisis.
The MICA Project exists because over 60% of people on Rikers Island live with mental health challenges and even more struggle with substance dependence. Incarceration worsens trauma and instability through isolation, violence, drug exposure, and lack of treatment. Release without supportive housing or treatment then perpetuates the revolving door of crisis. Recognizing that justice involvement reflects systemic failures, discrimination, and bias rather than solely individual culpability, our MICA teams ensure that court mandated ATI’s are regarded as a right and not a privilege.
They present powerful mitigation for clients facing the most challenging charges, educate stakeholders that treatment courts reduce recidivism and that people with violent charges succeed as often as those with nonviolent ones. They dismantle stigma around mental illness and champion policies grounded in fact, compassion, and healing despite facing resistance at every turn.
—
When we met HB, age 45, he was unhoused, a recent asylum-seeker, and experiencing substance-induced psychosis. Facing a violent felony and years in prison, his situation was dire. HB’s MICA team secured treatment court placement and an immigration-safe plea, overcoming barriers of lack of status and insurance. HB thrived in residential and outpatient care, moved into supportive housing, and achieved his dream of becoming a barber. His story highlights how integrated legal and clinical advocacy can transform lives under the toughest circumstances.
BE, 28, faced three open cases, including a felony involving his parents who feared their son. Diagnosed with schizophrenia and struggling with substance use, his eligibility for Mental Health Court was an uphill battle. After persistent advocacy, BEwas accepted for treatment. Released to live with a relative, he complied with intensive dual-diagnosis programming and court orders. Over time, contact with his parents progressed from phone calls to in-person reunions. BE completed vocational training, secured employment, maintained sobriety and stability, and obtained supportive housing. At graduation, his parents expressed joy at his transformation, crediting Mental Health Court for the remarkable change.
The MICA Project drives systemic reform beyond courtroom advocacy. Our teams mentor and train colleagues and agencies statewide and collaborate with providers and oversight bodies to hold institutions accountable for client care. Their expertise and relentless advocacy earn respect across the justice system, while ensuring defender priorities shape policy and practice. Through its interdisciplinary model, MICA advances legislation, modernizes treatment courts, and secures the care and second chances clients deserve, strengthening stability, health and safety.
In 2019, under the leadership of MICA Project attorneys Jeffrey Berman and Claudia Montoya, the Legal Aid Society partnered with NYC defenders to draft transformative legislation to expand New York’s outdated judicial diversion drug court law. In New York State, mental health courts are so scarce and inconsistent that most people whose mental health contributed to their charges end up in prison where over half of the 40,000 incarcerated individuals have untreated mental health conditions.
The Treatment Court Expansion Act redefines diversion as a health and safety strategy shifting decision making from prosecutors to judges guided by clinical expertise, removing charge restrictions, expanding eligibility to mental health and neurocognitive diagnoses, and adopting best practices like pre-plea diversion and harm reduction. With broad support, including the Office of Court Administration which backs treatment court reform and many TCEA provisions, and a coalition of defenders, prosecutors, law enforcement, victims, healthcare providers, disability-rights and justice experts, and people with lived experience, TCEA will move New York from punishment to treatment, and from crisis to recovery.
RB, with no prior record, was arrested for a sex offense while living with untreated schizophrenia and substance dependence. Prosecutors opposed treatment court, seeking prison and mandatory SORA registration. RB faced two options: plead guilty and serve time without treatment or fight for programming while still retaining a felony conviction, an undetermined sentence and SORA. He chose treatment and the judge accepted him over objection. RB completed residential dual-diagnosis care, charge-focused therapy, and transitioned to supportive housing with wrap around supports. He maintained sobriety, medication compliance, and showed deep insight and remorse. RB’s transformation was so inspiring that prosecutors, with the victim’s consent, agreed to vacate the felony and allow a misdemeanor plea with probation, avoiding SORA. RB’s case shows that even serious charges can be resolved safely through treatment courts and that judicial discretion, and not prosecutorial gatekeeping can change lives and improve public safety.