“The New York State budget is officially two weeks past due, as Governor Hochul continues to push for changes to our state’s bail laws that will erode judicial accountability and send more New Yorkers to dangerous and deadly jails.

And last week, reports emerged that the governor, alongside New York District Attorneys, is also attempting to gut New York’s discovery laws, threatening to send us back to the era of the ‘Blindfold Law’ when people were coerced to plead guilty without access to evidence in their cases, fueling mass incarceration and wrongful convictions.

These unjust proposals will not make New Yorkers safer - we know the safest communities have the most resources, not the most incarceration. Instead they will erode police, prosecutorial, and judicial accountability and send more New Yorkers to languish in jails longer. As legislators return to Albany for yet another week of budget negotiations, we urge them to stand strong against these attempts to upend the law.”

Read full statement here.