A Letter from Assemblyman Weprin
Dear Editor:
New York State, alongside the Federal Government, has embarked on a historic period of criminal justice reform in the last few years. On the federal level, legislation such as the recently implemented First Step Act, passed by Congress and signed by the President earlier this year, allows inmates in federal custody the opportunity for earlier release if an inmate has maintained a clean record while in prison and invested in improving themselves while incarcerated. Since 2017, New York has raised the age of criminal responsibility for juveniles to 18 for all but the most heinous of crimes, eliminated cash bail to make it so that people are held based on the seriousness of the crime they are accused of committing rather than the size of their bank account, and made significant changes to our court system to speed up our trials.