Criminal Justice Reform OVERVIEW
As a key focus area, we’ve had success in the area of criminal justice reform. But there are still more battles to win to achieve greater transparency and fairness around law enforcement, trials, sentencing and bail. Specific justice issues in UCLM’s Community Safety Agenda include:
· Repealing New York State’s civil service law 50-A (a bill that prohibits the public disclosure of police disciplinary records)
· Ending racial profiling and stop-and-frisk policies
· Jury selection and diversity
· Mass incarceration
· Bail reform
· Unequal sentencing practices.
Many of these issues are works-in-process that require continued attention and work. To that end, UCLM created the Criminal Justice Task Force to coordinate advocacy around several statewide issues of local importance such as bail reform, jury diversity, and manipulative use of plea bargaining. mass incarceration, and unequal sentencing practices
UCLM also supports Monroe County’s Project HOPE for drug-involved individuals, which avoids incarceration and expunges arrest records for those who successfully complete a treatment program. Because over-incarceration is a serious problem in general, we advocate for expanding this type of program for other nonviolent misdemeanors. To date, UCLM has recruited significant support for this change among influential decision-makers, including judges and City prosecutors. This expanded program would be based upon a model called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), which has been successfully implemented in cities nationally, including Albany, New York. As in Project HOPE, offenders who commit to complete appropriate services will avoid incarceration and have their arrest record expunged. Data indicates that LEAD significantly reduces recidivism as well as government expense incurred by law enforcement activities and incarceration.