Eight organizations, ranging from criminal justice reform groups like HALT Solitary and Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) to the National Action Network, will soon release a collective blueprint about how the state should address the prison system. The report delineates suggested legislative and executive action to tackle what activists call an ongoing “five-alarm fire.”
These recommendations follow deaths earlier this year at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a women’s prison, as well as a New York Times investigation into more than 120 instances of use-of-force by corrections officers while the incarcerated person was restrained. Nearly two years ago, body-camera footage captured prison guards fatally beating Robert Brooks, a Black incarcerated man, while his hands were behind his back. Harlemite Messiah Nantwi was similarly killed a few months later.
“This blueprint lays out clear solutions,” said RAPP director Jose Saldana. “Gov. Hochul and lawmakers must deliver real and fair pathways to release while transforming conditions inside and ending the abuse. The whole world watched that horrific video of a mob of white guards and sergeants brutally murdering Robert Brooks and now no one can feign ignorance — especially not those giving $5 billion of taxpayer money to this system every year.”
An illegal wildcat strike among corrections staff occurred shortly after Brooks’s death. As prison guards walked off the job, conditions worsened, and visits became increasingly limited.
The recommended bills largely stem from advocacy led by many of the blueprint’s authoring organizations and focus on safely reducing the prison population by cutting down the red tape keeping incarcerated people who otherwise have proven they are ready to return home. However, these campaigns were often previously organized independently, rather than through pushing a unified package.
The Fair & Timely Parole and Elderly Parole bills would allow more opportunities for parole eligibility. The Earned Time Act would create opportunities to reduce sentences for good behavior and participation in rehabilitation programs. The Second Look Act would allow more discretion toward resentencing.
While these address different elements of the prison system, the advocates believe they can collectively motivate good behavior and develop a safer environment for both incarcerated people and staff.
On the other hand, the HALT Solitary campaign already successfully pushed the state legislature into passing its keystone bill, which former governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law to limit solitary confinement. However, the advocates say the state is not in compliance. Over the past few years, the Legal Aid Society has filed lawsuits over the issue and the campaign petitioned the United Nations to get involved.
“This blueprint provides clear, concrete, and achievable solutions to the crisis in New York prisons,” said HALT Solitary campaign member Anisah Sabur. “As long as this crisis continues, more lives will be lost.”
The blueprint also calls on executive action from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who faces another general election next month against a Long Island Republican challenger. She notably played a personal hand in firing and prosecuting the officers involved in killing Brooks and Nantwi, but advocates long called for Hochul to exact her clemency powers toward releasing more incarcerated people.
“I stand in full support of this Blueprint. It expands real pathways for release while demanding an end to the abuse and the punitive culture inside New York’s prisons,” said Thomas Gant of the Center for Community Alternatives. “We have to advocate with urgency — and our elected officials must lead with that same urgency — because every day without action is another day of harm behind those walls.
“The Blueprint is the solution, and it was built the right way: by the people closest to the problem; they are closest to the solutions. I’ve lived this system, and I know transformation is possible — but only if we have the courage to act now.”
