Justice League NYC’s Statement on the 2020 New York State Budget
It took countless individual tragedies for New York State to finally end the barbaric practice of incarcerating people based on their access to financial wealth. We have a constitutional right to be ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but in reality it’s “guilty unless you can come up with money for bail.” The bail reform bill that went into effect on January 1, 2020, had the biggest impact on reducing the racial disparities of incarceration of any legislation in recent history.
It’s heartbreaking that Governor Cuomo and the NYS legislature have caved to the racist and inaccurate fear-mongering championed by police unions and rolled back bail reform, once again choosing politics over people. Money bail creates two separate and unequal justice systems, one for the rich and one for the poor. Yesterday, we took a huge step backwards by drastically expanding the charges that are again bail-eligible.
It’s especially stunning that Governor Cuomo and the NYS Senate and Assembly voted for increasing the population of our jails at a moment when we see just how vulnerable these facilities are to outbreaks of contagious disease. Being sent to jail at this time could be a death sentence, and low-income New Yorkers will be held indefinitely while our courts are also shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the full story is told of how this budget was negotiated, what will emerge is an exploitation of a state of emergency to push undemocratic reforms and austerity measures that will harm our city’s most vulnerable populations. Cutting the education budget while expanding law enforcement presence only furthers this pattern of prioritizing state funds to lock up, rather than empower our communities. Put together, these budget measures disproportionately affect New York’s Black and Brown communities, particularly the working-poor, immigrants, our homeless population and young people.
While we are devastated by the disastrous outcome in Albany last night, The Gathering for Justice and Justice League NYC will continue to organize and fight for our community members who are suffering under New York’s racist justice system. Our vision of the beloved community allows for restorative justice models that address the root causes of violence — by meeting people’s needs rather than destroying their lives — and identifying solutions for people returning home to succeed.
