Criminal justice reform advocates start new push for sentencing reform

As Democrats head into a new legislative session and reevaluate their priorities, criminal justice reform advocates are not backing off their push for sentencing reform. They plan to hold rallies around the state on Monday to kick off their latest efforts to amend the state’s laws regarding criminal sentencing.

For the fourth year in a row, activists are advocating for three sentencing reform laws. The Earned Time Act would make it easier for incarcerated individuals to shave time off their sentences based on merit credits and for good behavior, such as through educational or vocational programs. The Second Look Act would allow judges to revisit past sentencing decisions that may have been excessive and instead impose new, more lenient sentences. And the Eliminate Mandatory Minimums Act (more recently renamed the Marvin Mayfield Act) would do just that, abolishing mandatory minimum sentences and the last vestiges of the Rockefeller drug laws.

Advocates will hold rallies in nearly every corner of the state on Monday in favor of the three proposals: New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Long Island, Westchester, Syracuse and Rochester. They tout support from a broad coalition that includes civil rights groups, unions, business leaders and at least one former top jails official. Brian Fischer, former commissioner of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, will attend the rally in Westchester. “As someone who has spent my career in corrections, I support the Earned Time and Second Look Act, along with sentencing reforms because they seek to look at each case on an individual basis acknowledging that every person’s situation is unique,” Fischer said in a statement.

Amid continued backlash to the state’s 2019 bail reform laws and Republicans’ success in seizing on public safety fears, criminal justice reform advocates have recently seen less success in Albany. And with the results of the 2024 presidential election leading to Democrats reevaluating their priorities and the cost of living becoming a top issue for voters, criminal justice reform may face an even more difficult environment in Albany next year. 

Advocates saw some success in 2023 with the passage of the Clean Slate Act, which will clear the criminal record of most New Yorkers with past convictions so long as they have served their time and stayed out of trouble for a long enough period of time. Although the measure faced conservative opposition, it had widespread support from businesses and labor groups who saw it as an economic driver – a cleared criminal record makes it easier to get jobs and contribute to communities, which in turn adds to public safety. The law went into effect with relatively little fanfare last month. 

The Earned Time is receiving similar support from unions. “This legislation will help many formerly incarcerated people access living wage jobs, contribute to their local economies and participate in their communities,” said Sam Capitano, president of Buffalo Laborers Local 210 and business manager of Upstate New York Laborers' District Council. “We must recognize that training and secure employment are a more effective public safety strategy than incarceration.” Other unions have also expressed support for the Earned Time Act as well.

Bill sponsors are focusing heavily on the public safety benefits of rehabilitation, similar to the campaign for the Clean Slate Act, potentially in a bid to avoid criticisms that have hounded Democrats since 2019. Assembly Member Anna Kelles, sponsor of the Earned Time Act, said the trio of bills serve to improve both prison safety and the safety of the public. “We need to pass this legislative package in 2025 to increase participation in rehabilitative opportunities so that we can reduce violence inside prisons, change lives, preserve families, allow for effective reintegration back into society upon completion of a sentence, and improve public safety for all,” she said. 

State Sen. Jeremy Cooney, the sponsor of the bill in the upper chamber, even suggested that the legislation could benefit correction officers – a group that has fiercely opposed other criminal justice reforms like limiting solitary confinement. The Earned Time Act “fosters a better prison environment, which protects the safety of our correctional officers and staff,” Cooney said. And State Sen. Julia Salazar, sponsor of the Second Look Act, said that “a vast majority of New Yorkers… understand that safety and justice go hand-in-hand.”

On the money front, advocates also highlight the cost saving opportunities of the trio of bills. Incarcerating people is expensive, so shorter sentences and incentives for steps towards rehabilitation could save taxpayer dollars. According to the Vera Institute for Justice, New York had the highest cost per prisoner in the country in 2015, spending nearly $70,000 per person. State data also found that the merit time program – which the Earned Time Act would expand – saved New York hundreds of millions of dollars over a ten year period between 1997, when the program was introduced, and 2006. 

Supporters of criminal justice reform also plan to push for parole reform again in 2025. On that front, lawmakers approved the Less is More Act in 2021, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the same year. In ensuing years, advocates have attempted to pass two other parole reform bills but have not succeeded.