Mass Incarceration

VOCAL-NY Applauds NYS Senate and Assembly for Prioritizing Housing and Overdose Prevention in Budget Proposals

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CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-ny.org VOCAL-NY APPLAUDS NYS SENATE AND ASSEMBLY FOR PRIORITIZING HOUSING AND OVERDOSE PREVENTION IN BUDGET PROPOSALS After Weeks of Advocacy in Albany, State Lawmakers Heard Concerns and Addressed Them in Their One-House Budget Proposals  NEW YORK — Today, in response to the release of the Senate and Assembly One-House Budgets, VOCAL-NY released the following statement, …

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VOCAL-NY Responds to Mayor Adams’ State of the City

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CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-ny.org  VOCAL-NY RESPONDS TO MAYOR ADAMS’ STATE OF THE CITY See VOCAL-NY’s 2023 Policy Platform for Mayor Adams and the New York City Council NEW YORK — Today, in response to Mayor Adams second annual State of the City, VOCAL-NY released the following statement, attributable to Jawanza Williams, VOCAL-NY Director of Organizing: “Today we heard little about …

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Democrat & chronicle: Most incarcerated New Yorkers now come from upstate, not NYC. What’s behind the shift?:

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When New York changed its laws around where incarcerated people were counted, the next step was to quantify which areas sent the most people to prisons, according to VOCAL-NY’s civil rights campaign director, Nick Encalada-Malinowski. He sees the numbers of incarcerated people coming from upstate communities as a reflection of politics. As New York City …

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NEW YORK STATE OF POLITICS: Lawmakers push back on Hochul’s reluctance to end qualified immunity:

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People who have been treated unfairly by public officials without legal recourse argue more accountability for all officials will improve public safety, and Hochul’s position on the proposal doesn’t make sense. “Gov. Kathy Hochul has said that no one should be above the law and public safety is her top priority, but then yesterday said …

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City & state: The quest to end legal protections for public employees in NY – and not just police:

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Right now, the impact of the city law remains unclear due to a lack of data to analyze yet, according to VOCAL-NY’s Keli Young, the police reform group’s civil rights campaign coordinator.  However, New York’s proposal would go further than the city’s law, and even those in Colorado and New Mexico. Unlike in those instances, …

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GOTHAM GAZETTE: What Wasn’t in Hochul’s 2023 State of the State Agenda:

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“The Governor’s answer to the worst overdose crisis in New York’s history is to increase penalties for fentanyl and drug-induced homicide laws that only advance the War on Drugs, rather than the fight to save lives,” said Jawanza Williams, director of organizing for VOCAL-NY, an advocacy group. “Most egregious of all: Hochul’s complete omission of …

GOTHAM GAZETTE: What Wasn’t in Hochul’s 2023 State of the State Agenda: Read More »

TIMES UNION: Cautious policies for opioid crisis miss the mark, advocates say:

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Jasmine Budnella, the director of policy for VOCAL-NY, a drug-user advocacy group, applauded the investment in drug-checking technology and pointed to its pilot use at New York City’s two safe injection sites, also referred to as overdose prevention centers, where staff have been utilizing drug-checking technology to screen users’ samples.  Advocates are still disappointed in …

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