In Wyandanch, acclaimed anti-crime group faces uncertain path after leader's departure
For nearly 20 years, Risco Mention-Lewis pushed members of the Council of Thought and Action group to answer one question: Who are you?
Earlier this year, Mention-Lewis, 62, relinquished leadership of the group she founded in 2008 that aims to reduce crime and recidivism to ask that question of herself.
As a result, the future of the group, known in short as COTA and long based in Wyandanch, is murky. It hasn't been meeting since Mention-Lewis, who retired in January as a Suffolk County Police Department deputy police commissioner, stepped away from leading its weekly Zoom meetings the same month.
The group also is no longer receiving county funding. But Mention-Lewis and COTA members are hopeful that at the very least, its principles will live on in those whose lives already have been changed.
The group had been receiving more than $200,000 annually from Suffolk County, with the money used for a case manager, two outreach workers, internships, training and youth programs, according to Mention-Lewis.
A spokeswoman for the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said $55,000 to $83,000 of that money was given annually through the Suffolk police force from the state’s Gun Involved Violence Initiative, which is focused on reducing shootings and other firearm-related crimes.
She said the police department now has “opted not to fund” COTA with that grant money.
A Suffolk County spokesman said the state funding expired “under the former administration” and didn't answer questions about the remainder of the money.
Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said he is concerned about the effect that a disbanding of COTA could have on the Wyandanch community, where Mention-Lewis recruited troubled individuals for the group.
“When you are able to rewire someone’s brain and not only have them become a better person individually but also become a productive community member, you’re going to see less crime,” Schaffer said.
Hundreds have filtered through COTA, according to Mention-Lewis, who said about three dozen people attended weekly meetings in person before the pandemic.
She said she started COTA when she was a Nassau County prosecutor as a way to create “a new social network, with a new moral code,” for gang members. Four years later, in 2012, she brought COTA to Suffolk County, when she began working for the police force.
COTA's nucleus is made up of those who once were incarcerated and those at risk for involvement in the criminal justice system. The program requires each member to be the president of his or her own “corporation.”
Each must come up with a “corporate plan” through a questionnaire that covers subjects ranging from careers to relationships. Members pick short- and long-term goals and choose a “board of advisers,” who provide encouragement. The plan also addresses character and warns of “the impostor” or an inner voice that can dissuade a member from changing his or her behavior.
Sean McClean, a partner in a company that has helped at least 20 COTA members land construction jobs, said COTA “will certainly survive” without Mention-Lewis' leadership.
“I think the intent and the structure of the group is sound,” said McClean, 47, of MPACT Collective, a Huntington Station-based company that guides municipalities in community-based development.
He described the design of COTA as taking “the top 30 philosophical self-help books in the world down to street-level understanding.”
Jalil Louis, 56, of Brentwood, joined COTA in 2019 after serving 27 years in state prison for second-degree murder.
“Although I already had a plan, COTA acted like a GPS for me,” said Louis, a train car cleaner for the Long Island Rail Road. “It fine-tuned everything I wanted to do and gave me a structure.”
COTA meetings helped him work through obstacles, he said, and gave him a sense of responsibility for his actions.
Louis said COTA “wouldn’t be the same” without Mention-Lewis, whom he compared to a big sister.
“She’s like the captain of the ship,” he said. “She knows how to steer the ship in the right direction.”
Shamika Earle, 34, of Deer Park, joined COTA in 2016 just before serving a two-year federal prison sentence for identity theft. Now a software engineer, Earle said she worries about the group’s future without Mention-Lewis.
“I feel like without her to encourage new people to join, it won’t continue,” she said.
Mention-Lewis is taking the next year to be with family and to travel, but also to work with the Safer Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports those reentering society after prison, to integrate COTA's format there with the goal of making it a national movement.
Victor Dickson, president and CEO of the organization, said a pilot COTA program was established in Chicago based on the Wyandanch model a decade ago but didn't continue. Now he’s hoping to bring it back.
“I’m excited that Risco will now have more time to devote to helping us get it off the ground,” he said.
COTA “really seems to go a bit deeper” than other reentry-focused programs, according to Dickson, who said it taps into “the entrepreneurial spirit” many formerly incarcerated people possess.
Mention-Lewis said she continues to talk to members regularly, noting they also still talk to each other and have become a family.
“COTA has always been a movement of humans; it’s not about me leading people,” she said. “It’s about putting people out in the world to be a grassroots movement of change.”
Renita Certain, 52, of Islandia, agrees. She joined COTA six years ago looking for resources for her husband, William, who had just gotten out of prison. In the process, she discovered more about herself. It was through COTA that she decided to create a nonprofit arm of her Wyandanch boutique.
“It’s a methodology, and that becomes a way of life. That can never end,” she said.
For nearly 20 years, Risco Mention-Lewis pushed members of the Council of Thought and Action group to answer one question: Who are you?
Earlier this year, Mention-Lewis, 62, relinquished leadership of the group she founded in 2008 that aims to reduce crime and recidivism to ask that question of herself.
As a result, the future of the group, known in short as COTA and long based in Wyandanch, is murky. It hasn't been meeting since Mention-Lewis, who retired in January as a Suffolk County Police Department deputy police commissioner, stepped away from leading its weekly Zoom meetings the same month.
The group also is no longer receiving county funding. But Mention-Lewis and COTA members are hopeful that at the very least, its principles will live on in those whose lives already have been changed.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Risco Mention-Lewis, now retired from Suffolk's police force, founded the Council of Thought and Action.
- The aim of COTA, started in 2008, is to reduce crime and recidivism.
- The group has lost county funding and its founder stepped away from a leadership role in January, when she retired.
- Members hope the movement will live on in those whose lives already have been changed.
The group had been receiving more than $200,000 annually from Suffolk County, with the money used for a case manager, two outreach workers, internships, training and youth programs, according to Mention-Lewis.
A spokeswoman for the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said $55,000 to $83,000 of that money was given annually through the Suffolk police force from the state’s Gun Involved Violence Initiative, which is focused on reducing shootings and other firearm-related crimes.
She said the police department now has “opted not to fund” COTA with that grant money.
A Suffolk County spokesman said the state funding expired “under the former administration” and didn't answer questions about the remainder of the money.
Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said he is concerned about the effect that a disbanding of COTA could have on the Wyandanch community, where Mention-Lewis recruited troubled individuals for the group.
“When you are able to rewire someone’s brain and not only have them become a better person individually but also become a productive community member, you’re going to see less crime,” Schaffer said.
A 'corporate plan'
Hundreds have filtered through COTA, according to Mention-Lewis, who said about three dozen people attended weekly meetings in person before the pandemic.
She said she started COTA when she was a Nassau County prosecutor as a way to create “a new social network, with a new moral code,” for gang members. Four years later, in 2012, she brought COTA to Suffolk County, when she began working for the police force.
COTA's nucleus is made up of those who once were incarcerated and those at risk for involvement in the criminal justice system. The program requires each member to be the president of his or her own “corporation.”
Each must come up with a “corporate plan” through a questionnaire that covers subjects ranging from careers to relationships. Members pick short- and long-term goals and choose a “board of advisers,” who provide encouragement. The plan also addresses character and warns of “the impostor” or an inner voice that can dissuade a member from changing his or her behavior.
Facilitator Dorothy Henderson helped a member of the Council of Thought and Action, or COTA, fill out a "corporate plan." Group founder Risco Mention-Lewis, a former Suffolk deputy police commissioner and Nassau prosecutor, devised the tool to guide members of the group she founded in 2008 toward short- and long-term life goals. Credit: Jeffrey Basinger
Sean McClean, a partner in a company that has helped at least 20 COTA members land construction jobs, said COTA “will certainly survive” without Mention-Lewis' leadership.
“I think the intent and the structure of the group is sound,” said McClean, 47, of MPACT Collective, a Huntington Station-based company that guides municipalities in community-based development.
He described the design of COTA as taking “the top 30 philosophical self-help books in the world down to street-level understanding.”
'Like a GPS'
Jalil Louis, 56, of Brentwood, joined COTA in 2019 after serving 27 years in state prison for second-degree murder.
“Although I already had a plan, COTA acted like a GPS for me,” said Louis, a train car cleaner for the Long Island Rail Road. “It fine-tuned everything I wanted to do and gave me a structure.”
COTA meetings helped him work through obstacles, he said, and gave him a sense of responsibility for his actions.
Louis said COTA “wouldn’t be the same” without Mention-Lewis, whom he compared to a big sister.
“She’s like the captain of the ship,” he said. “She knows how to steer the ship in the right direction.”
Shamika Earle, 34, of Deer Park, joined COTA in 2016 just before serving a two-year federal prison sentence for identity theft. Now a software engineer, Earle said she worries about the group’s future without Mention-Lewis.
“I feel like without her to encourage new people to join, it won’t continue,” she said.
Mention-Lewis is taking the next year to be with family and to travel, but also to work with the Safer Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports those reentering society after prison, to integrate COTA's format there with the goal of making it a national movement.
Victor Dickson, president and CEO of the organization, said a pilot COTA program was established in Chicago based on the Wyandanch model a decade ago but didn't continue. Now he’s hoping to bring it back.
“I’m excited that Risco will now have more time to devote to helping us get it off the ground,” he said.
COTA “really seems to go a bit deeper” than other reentry-focused programs, according to Dickson, who said it taps into “the entrepreneurial spirit” many formerly incarcerated people possess.
Risco Mention-Lewis walks out of Suffolk County Police Department headquarters in Yaphank in January to start her retirement. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Mention-Lewis said she continues to talk to members regularly, noting they also still talk to each other and have become a family.
“COTA has always been a movement of humans; it’s not about me leading people,” she said. “It’s about putting people out in the world to be a grassroots movement of change.”
Renita Certain, 52, of Islandia, agrees. She joined COTA six years ago looking for resources for her husband, William, who had just gotten out of prison. In the process, she discovered more about herself. It was through COTA that she decided to create a nonprofit arm of her Wyandanch boutique.
“It’s a methodology, and that becomes a way of life. That can never end,” she said.
Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.
