News & Politics

Politics

Hochul to select man she granted clemency to help oversee state prisons

Alexander Dockery’s nomination is one of a number the state Senate will need to vote on before session ends.

Opinion

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

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

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

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

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

Policy

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

Policy

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

Policy

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

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

Policy

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

Personality

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.

Opinion

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

Policy

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

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

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

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

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

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.