We are filled with immense pride in what we have accomplished together in 2024 and have even greater hope for 2025 and beyond. This year, we continue to build on our shared commitment to advancing justice, equity, and opportunity for all, with a renewed focus on removing barriers for individuals who are system-impacted.

One of our most significant milestones from 2024 was the Fair Chance for Housing Act, which officially became law on January 19, 2024, and went into effect on January 1, 2025. This transformative legislation will help break cycles of homelessness and instability by curtailing housing discrimination based on conviction records. We are especially grateful to the bill’s lead sponsor, Council Member Keith Powers, and the NYC Council members who championed this bill. We look forward to working alongside communities to ensure its successful implementation through education and outreach. Folks can head to Fair Chance for Housing to request training for their community groups and organizations.

At the state level, we saw the passage of the groundbreaking Jury of Our Peers Act, which ends the exclusion of New Yorkers with felony convictions from serving on juries. This bill would have restored an essential civic right and ensures that our jury system reflects the diversity of our communities.  Unfortunately, this bill was then vetoed.  We will continue to fight for its passage this session. We also celebrated the implementation of the Clean Slate Act, which provides automatic sealing of records, offering an opportunity for a fresh start for countless New Yorkers. It was imperative to educate the Fortune community about this law with multiple information sessions because people should know that this protection exists and know how to use it as a tool in their successful journeys. Notably, each of these bills were on our list of priorities last year, and they passed thanks to your support and advocacy.

Throughout 2024, the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) worked tirelessly with Policy Center Collective members, staff, and participants to advocate for transformative legislation. Together, we advocated for key initiatives like Campaign for Reentry Cash, the Youth Justice & Opportunities Act, 13th Forward, Communities Not Cages, and #CLOSE Rikers. These efforts reflect our commitment to prioritizing rehabilitation, dismantling systemic barriers, and creating pathways to successful reentry.

As we look ahead, we are proud to announce our 2025 Legislative and Policy Priorities, which build on the successes of past years and focus on driving systemic change. This year, we remain dedicated to our three pillars:

Decarceration: We advocate for community-based alternatives to incarceration and raise awareness about the harms of mass incarceration through education, public events, and media outreach.

Improving conditions of confinement: We work to close Rikers Island, reform harmful correctional practices, and improve access to services and safety for incarcerated individuals.

The voices of those impacted by inhumane jail and prison conditions are at the forefront of our efforts.

Promoting fair reentry: We fight for equitable access to healthcare, housing, employment, and education for justice-involved individuals and combat discrimination in housing and employment policies. Our expertise also supports expanding affordable housing options and driving systemic reform nationwide.

These priorities reflect our unwavering commitment to building a fairer, more equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

We invite you to stand with us in 2025 by participating in our advocacy efforts, joining our community events, and continuing to amplify the voices of those directly impacted by injustice. Together, we will continue to make meaningful progress and create lasting change.

Thank you for your steadfast support and partnership. Here is to a year of collective action and transformative impact!

In solidarity,

The David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy

This year’s priorities include: 

• #CLOSERikers 

An ongoing and desperate humanitarian crisis at Rikers Island has been decades in the making. We must ensure that the plan to close Rikers Island in 2027 is followed, upon completion and opening of a network of four modern, humane jail sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. We must also ensure that people incarcerated in our city jails are treated humanely.

• #BEYONDrosies

#BEYONDrosies advocates for the women and gender-expansive people at the Rose M. Singer Center (Rosie’s) on Rikers Island to reduce the population of those incarcerated to under 100 individuals and close Rosie’s before the City’s 2027 timeline.  

• Opening Doors to Supportive Housing – Int 1100-2024

Intro 1100-2024 mandates the Department of Social Services to expand eligibility for existing city-funded supportive housing programs to include single adults, adult families, and families with children where the head of household has experienced justice system involvement in the past 12 months, is homeless or at risk of homelessness, and has a severe mental illness, substance use disorder, or both.

• #CommunitiesNotCages

Eliminate Mandatory Minimum Act – S.6471/ A.2036 

• Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, providing judges with greater discretion in making individualized determinations, with a presumption against incarceration.

Second Look Act – S.321/ A.531 

• Allow people who have served half or 10 years of their sentences to apply for reconsideration and possible reduction of their terms of incarceration.

Earned Time Act – A.1128/ S.774 

• Expand opportunities to earn “good time” and “merit time” credited against a prison sentence.

• Reentry Assistance – NY State Senate Bill 2025-S6222.

This initiative establishes a reentry fund to provide eligible individuals with a $425 monthly stipend for up to six months upon release from a state correctional facility, ensuring financial support during the critical reentry period.

• Reentry from the Inside Out – A3934/S5061 and A3935/S5059.

Reentry from the Inside Out (RIO) recognizes that “reentry” must start before people have been released from prison.  The two bills that make up RIO are A3934, which would establish a pilot program to provide access to a range of reentry services before and after release, and A3935, which would require the NY State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to coordinate with social service agencies and non-profits to assist with benefits applications before release.

• Youth Justice & Opportunities Act – 4238/ S.3426

The Youth Justice & Opportunities Act would expand Youthful Offender status eligibility for people under age 25 who currently face the threat of permanent criminal convictions and adult prison sentences. Young people’s development continues through their mid-twenties. They should not face lifelong direct and collateral consequences, including a loss of future employment and access to stable housing, for mistakes made during maturation. Given that the vast majority of young people arrested in New York are Black and Latinx, this effort is critical to advancing racial justice.

Fortune will also advocate for the following legislative campaigns and other pieces of legislation in 2025: 

• Promoting Visitor Access to Loved Ones on Rikers Island

Int 0420-2024

• The bill requires the DOC to establish a child visitor program to improve the experience of children visiting DOC facilities. It also mandates annual reporting on the program.

Int 1026-2024 

• The law requires the DOC to provide separate reporting for in-person and televisits, including detailed reasons for incomplete visits. Additionally, the DOC must record instances where an individual in custody refuses a visit after being informed and provide those recordings to defense attorneys upon request.

• 13th Forward

No Slavery in NY Act – S.308/A.3142 

• No Slavery in NY would prohibit involuntary employment of people in prison and provide that no person in prison would be compelled to provide labor against their will by force or threat.

Fairness and Opportunity for Incarcerated Workers Act – S.416A/A.3481B 

• Fairness and Opportunity for Incarcerated Workers would establish a New York state prison labor board to create, monitor and enforce an equitable and rehabilitative prison labor system. It would abolish penal servitude by prohibiting the forced labor of incarcerated individuals, providing fair wages and treatment for them, and banning the use of their labor for earnings.

Prison Minimum Wage Act – S.2345 

• This bill establishes a $3.00 per hour minimum wage for incarcerated individuals, aiming to eliminate exploitative labor practices and honor the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment by ending remnants of slavery in correctional labor.

Cap the Commissary – S.1744/A.5134 

• This bill ensures that items sold at correctional facility commissaries and canteens are priced at market value. It also stipulates that funds in an incarcerated persoperson’sissary account can only be used to purchase goods or items.

• Compassion and Reproductive Equity (CARE) Act – 7630A /S.7132A

Establishes a comprehensive, human rights-based statutory policy to address the needs of incarcerated pregnant and postpartum individuals and their children, ensuring their welfare and protection.

• Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) – 568B / A.4021A

The Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) will establish a statewide rental subsidy program for low-income families and individuals facing eviction, who are currently homeless, or are facing loss of housing. Unlike other subsidy and funding programs, the bill defines “home”ess” to “xplicitly include people being released from, or scheduled to be released from, incarceration, and lacking stable housing upon release. It would be available to people who are not eligible for local or federal rental assistance programs, including New Yorkers with felony conviction histories.

• Jury of Our Peers Act – S.206A / A.1432A

The Jury of Our Peers Act passed both houses of the legislature in 2024. It would end New York’s permanent bar on jury service for people with past felony convictions, thus promoting civic engagement and enhancing the diversity of our juries which promotes fairness and mitigates racial disparities in outcomes within our criminal legal system.

• New York for All Act – 987/A.5686

This bill prohibits all local and state law enforcement agencies and public officials from cooperating with ICE or engaging in immigration enforcement. This includes barring local authorities from sharing information about immigration status or facilitating ICE detentions

• Parole Justice

Fair and Timely Parole – S.159/A.127

• Fair and Timely Parole would provide a more meaningful parole review process for incarcerated individuals who are already parole-eligible, and it would ensure that people are evaluated for release based on who they are today, including their rehabilitation, personal transformation, and their current risk of violating the law.

Elder Parole – S.254

• Elder Parole would provide incarcerated people aged 55 and older who have already served 15 or more years an opportunity for parole release consideration. This includes some of the statestate’sst and sickest incarcerated people.

• Treatment Not Jails – 1263/ S.1976

The Treatment Not Jail (TNJ) Act would expand access to judicial diversion for people with mental health issues and cognitive impairments.

We are also partners in the Justice Roadmap, consisting of a group of organizations and advocates who joined forces to combat the criminal and immigration legal systems that oppress and criminalize Black and brown communities. We will commit renewed energy towards efforts to protect and uphold the rights and humanity of people ensnared in both systems.