Recent Achievements

Alternatives to Detention for Youth

High-level municipal officials have announced that New York City intends to allocate funding to support alternative-to-detention programs for juveniles.

The Juvenile Justice Coalition – led by the CA and working in concert with City officials and a wide array of allies – has been advocating diligently for this funding allocation for months. It is fair to say that without our advocacy effort, these monies would not have been made available for this important and overlooked program area.

Women's Health in Prison

We have just heard from the counsel for the state’s prison system that the Department is prepared to respond positively to proposals from our Women in Prison Project regarding many very practical but important matters related to women’s health and have expressed a desire to work with the Project to fulfill them. These include:

• adding updated books on women’s health issues in prison libraries;
• providing sufficient sanitary supplies;
• increasing the number of showers per week for women in punitive segregation;
• and making sure that translation services are available in prison medical clinics.
  
  

Phones in Holding Cells

The City’s Department of Correction has installed free phone service in the pre-arraignment court pens in Manhattan and Queens, a step we have recommended for years and which has finally been carried out in direct response to our advocacy.

Our strong impression is that this measure has already achieved positive results: a calmer environment in the holding facilities, improving conditions for inmates and officers, and more detainees arranging for earlier bail, averting jail time for them and saving money for the city.