Campaign Urges State Lawmakers to Continue to Support Bail Reform and Reject Any Rollbacks
NEW YORK — FWD.us launched an ad campaign in Albany featuring people who have been directly impacted by pretrial detention. The six figure buy is the latest in the organization’s seven figure campaign to protect New York’s historic bail reforms enacted in 2019. The TV spot calls on legislators to hold firm in their support of bail reform and to preserve the impact of the policies which have already kept thousands more New Yorkers out of jail. These vital reforms are reducing racial and regional disparities that have plagued New York’s criminal justice system for decades.
Some lawmakers in Albany are already considering rolling back the reforms based on fearmongering and misinformation, just months after the laws went into effect. Proposed revisions to the new laws would expose thousands more New Yorkers to pretrial detention, increase the population in jails across the state, and disproportionately harm the Black New Yorkers and New Yorkers outside of the five boroughs who are projected to feel the most impact from the new bail laws.
“Bail reform is working for everyday New Yorkers and those most at risk of senseless pretrial jailing,” said FWD.us New York State Director of Criminal Justice Reform Rena Karefa-Johnson. “We are proud to collaborate with some of the people directly impacted by pretrial jailing to call on Albany to resist the same tired arguments and headlines that have fueled mass incarceration for decades. New York needs more pretrial freedom, not less.”
