RACIAL JUSTICE
District Attorneys have historically played a harmful role by helping perpetuate racial injustice in America. Now they must play a unique role in eliminating it. The criminal justice system has a disproportionate impact on marginalized — and especially Black — communities. To begin addressing this injustice, we must recognize past harms, shrink the system’s footprint, support historically marginalized communities, affirmatively enact anti-racist policies, and develop an anti-racist workplace culture.
To accomplish these goals, Lucy will:
Recognize and repair past harms committed by the Office including:
Reviewing past convictions for now-decriminalized behavior, vacating and sealing those convictions, and acknowledging harm to community members.
Advocating for clemency or other appropriate remedies for people serving unjust sentences.
Offering restitution and acknowledging harm where appropriate.
Shrink the system and enact anti-racist policies including the following:
Diverting incoming cases better handled by non-criminal justice social services, including crimes of poverty, mental health challenges, or substance use.
Declining to prosecute cases based on conduct that has contributed to the hyper-criminalization of neighborhoods of color.
Investing in supervised release programming.
Ending the use of cash bail.
Enacting a policy of considering exposure to predicate and persistent felony enhancements prior to making charging decisions at the Grand Jury stage.
Recommending jail or prison sentences only as a last resort.
Analyzing cases at each stage of the criminal justice process to identify areas of racial disparity.
Creating targeted policies to correct any racial disparities found.
Support historically marginalized and harmed communities directly by:
Hiring staff from communities that have historically been impacted by disproportionate prosecution.
Advocating for the savings from decarceration to be invested in communities most harmed by mass incarceration.
Create an anti-racist workplace culture by pursuing the following:
Creating funded internships within the Office for young people from directly- impacted communities.
Providing racial justice training to all staff that incorporates the history of American prosecution and mass incarceration, and utilizing outside experts such as the Vera Institute’s Reshaping Prosecution program.
Partnering with local communities — including directly impacted community members — to develop a comprehensive educational program for staff about Manhattan’s racial history.
Requiring that all staff be trained in implicit bias, procedural justice, cultural humility, and the impacts of trauma.
Visiting local jails and state prisons to meet with incarcerated Manhattanites and requiring staff to do the same.
Requiring participation in the Inside Criminal Justice course in which DA staff members study criminal justice alongside incarcerated students and collaboratively develop policy.