The Legislature must reform N.Y. prisons
Nick Encalada-Malinowski, NY Daily News — With multiple delays and policy maneuvering, Gov. Hochul bullied the Legislature into the budget of her liking....
Hochul grants 19 pardons
Johan Sheridan, WWLP-22News — NY Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned 19 formerly incarcerated individuals, but faced criticism from criminal justice advocates for not commuting the sentences of anyone currently incarcerated, especially women in honor of Mother's Day. As of May 2026, the state's prison system houses 34,066 inmates, and prison reformers are raising alarms about increasing deaths within state prison facilities....
Members of Congress join the fight to pass parole reform in New York
Rebecca C. Lewis / City & State NY — Fair and Timely Parole as well as Elder Parole have languished in the state Legislature, but momentum for the bills is building...
Demand for parole reform continues ahead of new year
Noah Powelson / Queens Daily Eagle — With a little over a month until lawmakers return to Albany, lawmakers and advocates reignited a multi-year long effort to reform the parole process for elderly incarcerated individuals...
Gov. Hochul orders closure of another NY State prison, drawing criticism
Graham Rayman, NY Daily News — Gov. Hochul has ordered the closure of an upstate prison but opted not to close two more prisons, as had been previously approved in the state budget, managing to anger both correction officers union officials and prison reform advocates...
Legal orgs call on state leaders for prison reform
Noah Powelson / Brooklyn Daily Eagle — A week after Governor Kathy Hochul enacted her first round of clemencies this year, 135 organizations co-signed and published a letter to state leaders demanding more be done to address “the urgent crisis of racist brutality, medical neglect and denial of basic dignity in New York State prisons.” ...
Governors, Use Your Clemency Powers
Steve Zeidman / New York Times — President Trump is making shameless use of his constitutional clemency power, rewarding insurrectionists, cronies, campaign contributors and sundry others. But this is not the only problem. Mr. Trump’s acts of commission are paralleled by American governors’ acts of omission. Even though they control the bulk of the country’s prison population and typically have the power to grant clemency, many governors have consistently failed to exercise the power of forgiveness, to all of our detriment...
Widening racial disparity gap has advocates calling for parole reform, board change
Tom Eschen / CBS 6 ALBANY WRGB — A discrepancy with "no rational explanation" is causing criminal justice advocates to call for Governor Kathy Hochul to make changes to New York's parole board, and for the legislature to pass parole reform bills this session...
A Video Letter from Jerome Wright to Gov. Kathy Hochul
Jerome Wright / Open Letter — To Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature, from a survivor of solitary confinement, responding to Hochul's capitulation to the illegal demands of DOCCS and members of NYSCOBA, in an attempt to abrogate the HALT Solitary Law and divert attention from the brutal and racist lynching of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility...
New York’s Prison Officials Don’t Want Incarcerated People to Read This Story
Rebecca McCray / Hell Gate — On Monday morning, state correction officers trickled back to work following a three-week-long wildcat strike that affected nearly all of the state’s 42 prisons and caused disruptions in meals, medication distribution, education and rec programming, and effectively confined incarcerated people to their cells for nearly 24 hours a day in some facilities. Over the course of the strike, seven incarcerated people died, including 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi of the Bronx, who was reportedly beaten to death by correction officers who have since been placed on leave...
The Hidden War Fueling the New York Prison Guard Strike
Orisanmi Burton / Inquest — New York state prison guards have been on strike since February 17. The strike began in part as a result of attempts by the state to prosecute the death of Robert Brooks, a forty-three-year-old Black father who was serving a twelve-year prison sentence at Marcy Correctional Facility when he was fatally beaten by guards on December 9, 2024...
Elder Parole bill gains majority support in state Senate
Rebecca C Lewis / City & State NY — At a time of turbulence for New York’s prisons, a long-sought criminal justice reform measure now has enough support to pass the upper chamber – on paper, at least...