Statement on the Jury of Our Peers Act

(June 14, 2024 – New York, NY) — Rob DeLeon, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at The Fortune Society, issued the following statement about the New York State legislature’s recent passage of the Jury of Our Peers Act:

“Nearly one million New Yorkers, almost two-thirds of whom are Black or Latine, are currently barred from serving on a jury based on a felony conviction. The passage of the Jury of Our Peers Act takes us one step closer to ending this particular form of perpetual punishment, which forever excludes people – including me – from full participation in civic life.

We have been excluded regardless of how much time has passed since our convictions and regardless of everything we have accomplished and contributed to our communities since then. This exclusion serves no purpose and is contrary to studies showing that the restoration of civil rights enhances public safety. Restoring the right to serve is also critical to ensuring people on trial have true juries of their peers, leading to outcomes that are less likely to be influenced by implicit or explicit racial bias. Fortune thanks Senator Cleare and Assembly Member Aubry for their championship, and we urge Governor Hochul to sign the Jury of Our Peers Act. I look forward to complaining about receiving my first summons for jury duty, just like everyone else.”

Learn more about the Jury for Our Peers Act here.

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About The Fortune Society

Founded in 1967, The Fortune Society has advocated on criminal justice issues for over five decades and is nationally recognized for developing model programs that help people with criminal justice histories to be assets to their communities. Fortune offers a holistic and integrated “one-stop-shopping” model of service provision. Among the services offered are discharge planning, licensed outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment, alternatives to incarceration, HIV/AIDS services, career development and job retention, education, family services, drop-in services, and supportive housing as well as lifetime access to aftercare.

Fortune has a dual mission of services and advocacy. We use what we learn from our justice impacted staff and leadership and from the people we serve about the obstacles that people with criminal histories face to inform and fuel our advocacy work.