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The Fortune Society Unveils 2025 Legislative And Advocacy Priorities
The Fortune Society’s David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) today unveiled the organization’s 2025 legislative and advocacy priorities, calling on City and State lawmakers to support measures that promote successful reentry from incarceration, racial justice, expand access to opportunities for people with conviction histories, and improve conditions inside jails and prisons.
“We are proud of what we accomplished in 2024 in partnership with our fellow advocates and providers, and we are filled with hope for the work ahead in 2025 despite these challenging times. With transformative wins like the Fair Chance for Housing Act, we’ve made significant strides in advancing justice and equity for people involved in the criminal legal system. We remain committed to supporting legislation and policies that increase decarceration, improve conditions of confinement, and promote successful reentry—all with the voices of impacted individuals at the forefront,” said Stanley Richards, President and CEO of The Fortune Society.
Richards added, “In 2025, we will continue to push for more access to housing, sentencing reform, and expanded access to opportunities and supports. We will also continue to challenge harmful and inaccurate narratives and language about people, families, and communities impacted by the criminal legal system, instead amplifying their humanity and potential. Together, we will continue to challenge systemic inequities and drive meaningful reform.”
Fortune’s 2025 legislative and advocacy priorities are:
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 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.
· 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.
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 – S.6643A
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 – A.2461/ S.207
Reentry from the Inside Out (RIO) recognizes that “reentry” must start before people have been released from prison. RIO 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 and would establish a pilot program to provide access to a range of reentry services before and after release.
Youth Justice & Opportunities Act – S4330/ A5293
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.
Requires the DOC to establish a child visitor program aimed at improving the experience of children visiting DOC facilities. The bill also mandates annual reporting on the program’s status.
Requires the DOC to provide separate reporting for in-person and tele-visits, 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.
· 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 of incarcerated individuals, and banning the use of the labor of incarcerated individuals 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 person’s commissary account can only be used to purchase goods or items.
Compassion and Reproductive Equity (CARE) Act – A.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) – S.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 “homeless” to explicitly 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 – S.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
· Fair and Timely Parole – A.162/ S.307
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.2423/ A.2035
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 state’s oldest and sickest incarcerated people.
Treatment Not Jails – A.1263/ S.1976
The Treatment Not Jail (TNJ) Act would expand access to judicial diversion for people with mental health issues and cognitive impairments.
The Fortune Society is also a partner 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.
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. For more information, visit www.fortunesociety.org.