Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is working with police and community activists to rehabilitate, educate and give job training to those affected by drugs.
A group of suspected, nonviolent drug dealers was recently arrested on Terrace Ave. in Hempstead in an undercover police sting. However, instead of going to jail, Rice says 15 of them will be given the chance to potentially turn their lives around.
?You either decide to go on the straight and narrow and join your community and try to turn it around, or you're going to sell drugs and get re-arrested and you're going to be taken out of the community,? Rice says.
Community activists will act as guidance counselors to show the individuals that they can make a living without drugs.
Some say the program can only help those who want to be helped. Rice says if the 15 recently arrested alleged drug dealers get in trouble with the law again, they will face jail time for both old and new charges.