Unions back not one, but two sentencing reform measures

As lawmakers shift gears into post-budget legislating, nearly a dozen unions are putting their weight behind two sentencing reform bills. 

A total of 11 unions – including political powerhouses like 1199SEIU, DC37 and the New York State Nurses Association – signed a letter addressed to state leaders calling for the passage of the Earned Time and Second Look Acts. The unions argued that the legislation would “help expand access to essential, living wage jobs, boost the state’s economy, and allow all New Yorkers to contribute to their communities” by getting incarcerated people who qualify back into the workforce. 

“According to statistics from New York’s Budget Division, our state currently has 473,000 unfilled jobs,” the letter reads. “This labor shortage has been exacerbated by the exclusion of people who are locked out of the workforce because of long prison sentences and limited opportunities to earn release through educational and workforce development programs in prison.”

A number of unions had previously thrown their support behind the Earned Time Act, a measure that would expand merit time opportunities so that incarcerated individuals can get time off their sentences through participation in vocational training and other rehabilitative programs. Such programs would prepare people to fill job openings once they get out, benefiting industries seeking to hire. Using similar logic, labor and business groups also supported the Clean Slate Act, which has since become law and which seals criminal records after enough time has passed, making it easier for people who have already served their sentences to get jobs.

However, many unions had not previously publicly backed the Second Look Act. That measure would allow judges to reconsider past sentences that may have been excessive and impose newer, more lenient ones. The judge would take into account a number of factors, including rehabilitative steps taken by the individual like job vocational training. “We know that our unions are stronger and our communities benefit when we expand opportunities for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers to rejoin the workforce with jobs that pay a living wage,” the unions wrote in the letter.

Sentencing reform came up during this year’s budget negotiations following a statewide corrections officers’ strike that strained the state’s already understaffed prison system. When the strike came to an end, the state fired about 2,000 corrections officers for failing to return to work. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III both expressed support for measures that would help reduce the prison population, including sentencing reform. 

Some lawmakers pushed for a version of the Earned Time Act to be added to the budget, as the executive branch backed expanding merit time. But while the final spending plan did expand the list of programs that can count toward merit time, it did not expand eligibility for merit time programs or increase the amount of time that people can earn off their sentence – which are the centerpieces of the Earned Time Act.