Criminal Justice
Opinion
Opinion: Words of condemnation aren’t enough. Lawmakers must pass anti-ICE legislation.
If we fail as lawmakers to match our words with action, we're giving ICE the green light to escalate.
Policy
Activists ask U.N. to investigate solitary confinement in NY prisons
The U.N. considers solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days to be a form of torture.
News & Politics
Department of Correction investigator violated sanctuary city law, DOI report finds
The Department of Investigation said the city Department of Correction “failed to provide” appropriate training to staff about collaborating with ICE.
Policy
DOCCS committee recommends weakening law against solitary confinement
The state prison agency encouraged the state Legislature to consider tweaks to the law that would make it easier to put people in solitary confinement.
Opinion
Opinion: Mayor Adams, it’s time to protect immigrant street vendors
No one should be sent to jail or put at risk of immigration consequences for serving tamales, halal food or fresh fruit to New Yorkers.
Policy
How much authority will the court-appointed Rikers boss actually have? Applicants want to know
The deadline for the city and the Legal Aid Society to submit recommendations for a Rikers “remediation manager” is Friday.
Rikers Island
Updated
A timeline on the closure of Rikers Island
The jails system will be turned over to federal control.
Criminal Justice
No, New York doesn’t have ‘cashless bail’
But that won’t necessarily stop the Trump administration from trying to pull the state’s federal funding anyway.
New York State
‘My son Nyah was a good boy:’ Utica’s refugee community continues to grieve teen’s death
Friends and family seek justice in the death of a 13-year-old boy shot by police last year.
Policy
Criminal justice reform groups call on Hochul to commute prison sentences
More than 130 advocacy groups – including the WFP, NAACP New York Conference and Release Aging People in Prison – called on the governor to reduce the state's prison population.
2025 New York City Mayoral Election
Exit poll: Public safety tops voter concerns, but NYC Dems reject policing-first approach
Despite safety concerns, criticisms that Zohran Mamdani would be soft on crime didn’t land, according to a poll from the Vera Institute’s political arm.
Albany Agenda
Former Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell on track to join state parole board
During his long career in the state Legislature, O’Donnell supported expanding parole – and soon, he’ll get to decide who deserves it.
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Policy
Parole and sentencing reform left out of omnibus prison reform bill
Criminal justice advocates are chafing at the exclusion of measures they say are necessary to respond to Robert Brooks’ death in a truly meaningful way.
Opinion
Opinion: Restoring the right to serve on juries for people with felony convictions
The Jury of Our Peers Act is a step toward equal justice.
Opinion
Opinion: ‘Excited delirium’ is racist pseudoscience. NY must ban it as a diagnosis.
Hiding behind a fictional medical term enables police to justify ultra-aggressive tactics and then shirk accountability when those tactics wind up killing someone in their custody.
Interviews & Profiles
Fighting for greater oversight of New York prisons following two fatal beatings
An interview with Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York
Policy
Unions back not one, but two sentencing reform measures
After previously supporting the Earned Time Act, several unions are calling on state leaders to also pass the Second Look Act before the end of the legislative session
New York State
Lawmakers press state prisons commissioner at hearing
The commissioner asked legislators for greater power to discipline problem corrections officers.
Policy
Lawmakers succeed in watering down Hochul’s proposed discovery changes
The governor still got legislative leaders to agree to rollbacks to the 2019 reforms, but it wasn’t exactly what she had proposed.
Albany Agenda
DOCCS wanted people convicted of violent crimes to be eligible for early release
A “program bill” circulated last year would have dramatically expanded eligibility for merit time programs that allow incarcerated people to earn time off of their sentences
