Criminal Justice
Opinion
Opinion: Don’t let the late budget block priorities like banning ‘excited delirium’
There are only a few days left in the legislative session to ban this racist pseudoscience.
Opinion
Opinion: Why does New York shackle women during labor?
The Anti-Shackling bill and CARE Act would ensure we treat all pregnant New Yorkers, including those in police custody or incarcerated, with the care they and their newborns deserve.
Opinion
Opinion: The light that shines behind the prison walls
Without external scrutiny, the state prison system will return to a state of opacity where inefficiency and neglect go unnoticed until it is too late, and too expensive, to fix.
Opinion
Opinion: Can Mamdani confront the NYPD’s ‘Blue Power’?
Since the 1960s, the police department and police unions have constituted a powerful, at times implacable, force in city and state politics.
Opinion
Opinion: Our laws must make clear that intoxication is not consent
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to confront the gaps that continue to leave survivors without justice.
Albany Agenda
Lawmakers and activists say Westchester prison for women is in crisis
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximum security prison for women in the state, has had two suspected suicides by inmates since the start of the year.
Budget
Immigration budget deal within reach as lawmakers pass fourth extender
Budget negotiations are in full swing with no end in sight as the Legislature circles a deal to bar local police from working with ICE.
Criminal Justice
Robert Brooks’ father pushes for new office to probe prison deaths as counties push back
County coroners are fighting to retain jurisdiction over prison fatalities.
Criminal Justice
At Bellevue Hospital, Mamdani takes a step toward closing Rikers
The mayor touted the opening of a 104-bed therapeutic unit for incarcerated people to replace a Rikers Island infirmary.
Opinion
Opinion: To keep New York safe, Albany must protect victims and witnesses from ICE
Local law enforcement should never enforce civil immigration law or allow victims and witnesses to be turned into targets for ICE.
Rikers Island
With new leadership, advocates are daring to hope for change at Rikers
Mamdani’s Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards and federal Remediation Manager Nicholas Deml will work side by side. Their task – fixing a notoriously dysfunctional jail system – is daunting.
Interviews & Profiles
Stanley Richards wants Rikers closed. In the meantime, he works there.
The new correction commissioner is committed to borough-based jails, ending solitary confinement and collaborating with federal supervisors.
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Opinion
Opinion: Why NYC needs a Department of Community Safety
For decades, the city has defaulted to police, courts and incarceration to contain and supervise crises.
Immigration
Lawmakers want Hochul to use clemency power to protect immigrants
The Clemency Justice Act would make applying for executive clemency easier and more transparent.
Policy
Planned Parenthood: Hochul’s buffer zone bill may be unconstitutional
Reproductive health centers worry the proposal to restrict protests would violate New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights.
Opinion
Opinion: New York promised to invest in youth. It’s time to deliver.
The Youth Justice Innovation Fund would take $50 million of unspent Raise the Age funds and make them available to trusted community-based organizations.
Policy
Lawmakers want independent medical examiner’s office to investigate prison deaths
It’s unclear how much it would cost to create the new entity within the state Commission of Correction.
NYN Media
Vera Institute names Insha Rahman president
Rahman helped win bail reform in New York and now hopes to help the Mamdani administration create a Department of Community Safety.
Opinion
Opinion: A Black History Month call to reform New York’s mental health courts
The Treatment Court Expansion Act will help dismantle the racist systems that historically criminalized behavioral health diagnoses in Black communities.
Criminal Justice
Legislature considering funding reforms for Raise the Age, not rollbacks
Tweaks could come to the 2017 law increasing meant to keep teens from getting criminally charged as adults.
