New York’s unjust and racist sentencing laws have fueled mass incarceration and torn Black and brown families apart for generations.
These laws were driven by a wave of anti-Black racism that New York exported across the country. Today, much of this system remains intact, with New York incarcerating people at a rate more than double that of the mid-1970s. Each year, our state spends over $3 billion on a cruel, counterproductive prison system that needlessly warehouses people for decades. This money could instead be invested in proven strategies that enhance community safety, such as education, housing, healthcare, survivor resources, and community-based anti-violence and restorative justice programs. It’s time for New York to invest in communities—not cages.
Over the past half-century, New York’s sentencing laws have driven the crisis of mass incarceration, from the 1970’s Rockefeller Drug Laws to the 1990’s “tough on crime” era.
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That is why we launched Communities Not Cages, our grassroots campaign to overhaul New York’s racist and draconian sentencing laws. Together, we will:
It’s time to end the profound and lasting harm caused by New York’s sentencing laws.
These laws condemn tens of thousands of New Yorkers to excessive sentences without the possibility of reconsideration, review, or an opportunity to demonstrate personal growth and transformation.
Prosecutors use the threat of outrageously long mandatory minimums to coerce people into taking guilty pleas, undermining fundamental fairness and our basic constitutional rights. Mandatory minimums drive mass incarceration, strip judges of discretion, and give prosecutors outsized power to coerce guilty pleas. The Marvin Mayfield Act will eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, allowing judges to consider individual circumstances and mitigating factors in each case.
Under current sentencing laws, most incarcerated people have no opportunity to demonstrate to a judge that they have changed or to ask for excessive or extreme sentences to be reconsidered to account for new laws and norms. The Second Look Act will allow incarcerated people to petition for resentencing and enable judges to reduce sentences, giving New Yorkers the chance to return to their families, rebuild their lives, and contribute to their communities.
Earned time helps to prepare incarcerated people for reintegration and to restore them to their families and communities. Right now, incarcerated people have almost no meaningful opportunities to earn release even after years of good conduct, and DOCCS has unlimited discretion to deny good time and merit time credits. The Earned Time Act will strengthen and expand “good time” and “merit time” laws to encourage personal transformation in prison and reunite families.
