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Serving People from Arrest to Reintegration

Legal Action Center: Proposals to Improve Successful Reentry Into Society of Qualified Individuals With Criminal Records

  • Organization: Legal Action Center
  • Date Created: Tuesday, February 07, 2006
  • Submitted: Tuesday, February 07, 2006
  • Attachment(s): PDF

There are approximately 63,000 people in state prisons and 40,000 incarcerated in local jails throughout New York State, with another 100,000 under community supervision. Yearly, 27,000 people are released from state prison and more than 100,000 from local jails back into our communities. All are rightly expected to seek and maintain employment and become productive members of society, but they face many daunting roadblocks as they try to rebuild their lives and support their families. 

 

During the past three decades New York has enacted a series of statutes to implement the state’s strong public policy to encourage the employment of qualified individuals with histories of criminal justice system involvement so that those who pay their debt to society can earn a living and lead productive, tax-paying, and law-abiding lives. While these laws have been very beneficial, there is still one large gap – individuals who have demonstrated their rehabilitation and job-readiness can never escape their past no matter how long ago or minor their criminal convictions – and there are also some technical problems with the existing statutes. The Legal Action Center has drafted a package of proposals to remedy these problems.

 

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