personal causes
community support
Launched by Dr. Melony Samuels in 1988, Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger is a non-profit organization, working vigorously to end hunger in the Bedford-Stuyvesant / Brownsville / Ocean Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Providing emergency food, social services such as Food Stamp screening, and Brooklyn's only community focused urban garden, The Campaign Against Hunger gives both strength and dignity to the community.
Launched in 2014 by the Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation (NEBHDCo), Golden Harvest Choice Food Pantry offers food distribution. open to the public (ID required) every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am - 12pm, rain or shine. NEBHDCo’s mission is the preservation, development, and management of affordable housing and homeownership opportunities, community and economic development initiatives, and human services that effect social change in central Brooklyn.
systemic change
#LessIsMoreNY
On Friday, September 17th, 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the #LessIsMoreNY Act into law.
Click here to see the press release following the Governor’s signature
New York imprisons more people for non-criminal "technical" violations of parole like missing an appointment with a parole officer, being late for curfew, or testing positive for alcohol/other drugs than any state in the country.
Of people on parole whom New York sent back to prison in 2016, over 6,300 or 65% were reincarcerated for technical parole violations.
Nearly 1/3 of the new admissions to state prisons are due to people reincarcerated for technical violations of parole.
Only 14% of people on parole who were reincarcerated were returned to prison because they were convicted of a new crime.
The racial disparity is stark: Black people were incarcerated in New York City jails for technical parole violations at more than 12 time the rate of whites.
Technical parole violations cost New York taxpayers well over $600 million each year.
clean slate ny
Relates to the Automatic Expungement of Certain ConvictionS (S1553D - MYRIE)
New York's Sealing Law is Not Enough: A 2017 New York State law allows for criminal records to be permanently sealed under certain conditions. Unfortunately, far too few people know how to apply or have the resources to do so. While an estimated 600,000 New Yorkers are eligible to apply for records sealing under this law, fewer than 2,500—less than 1%—have actually made it through the complex, burdensome process.
Clean Slate Will Help Power New York's Economy: With more than 400,000 New Yorkers arrested on criminal charges each year, the exclusion of people with criminal records from employment opportunities via background checks and other barriers hurts productivity and deprives the workforce of crucial talent. The ACLU estimates that, nationally, excluding individuals with conviction histories from the workforce costs the economy between $78 billion and $87 billion in lost domestic product.
We Cannot Ignore Racial Disparities In Policing and Prosecution: Automatic expungement is fundamental to addressing the wrongs of over-policing, excessive prosecution, and racial injustice in our criminal legal system and to reducing the systemic barriers that disproportionately impact low-income individuals of color. In New York City, for example, 48 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession in 2017 were black, 38 percent were Latinx, and only 9 percent were white.
#Right2RemainSilent
Relates to procedures required for the custodial interrogation of children (S1099 - Bailey)
Codifies young New Yorkers’ right to counsel before a police interrogation
Modifies the Family Court Act and Criminal Procedure Law to ensure that a child under age 18 may only be interrogated by law enforcement after the young person has consulted with counsel, thereby ensuring any waiver of rights under Miranda is genuinely knowing, voluntary, and intelligent.
The statute already authorizes interrogations only when “necessary.” The bill also clarifies that a custodial interrogation of a child may be deemed necessary only when there is a risk of harm to the child or others.
“This legislation would provide long-overdue protections for our vulnerable Black and Latinx clients. Young people are not able to comprehend the Miranda warnings, or the consequences of waiving their right to remain silent,” said Dawne Mitchell, Attorney-in-Charge of the Juvenile Rights Practice at The Legal Aid Society.