First Communities Not Cages Advocacy Day

We're planning a blow-out day with rallies, press conferences, meetings with lawmakers, music, and creative actions - and we need you there! Together, we'll be convening in Albany with hundreds of formerly incarcerated people, families, and advocates to demand that New York State overhauls our racist and unjust sentencing laws.

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, which has disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities. Right now, over 30,000 people are incarcerated in New York’s prisons. Nearly 75% are Black or brown.

It is time for New York to reform our unjust and archaic sentencing laws. Under New York’s current law, there is no mechanism for a judge to be able to review or reconsider an excessive sentence. Because of the coercive power of mandatory minimums, 98% of convictions…