LUCY LANG RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE REENTRY PLAN & ANNOUNCES FORMERLY INCARCERATED ADVISORY COUNCIL; PLEDGES TO HIRE FORMERLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE IN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE

Lang Recently Granted National Award For Groundbreaking College-In-Prison Program, Donates $25K Award To Columbia Law School’s Paralegal Pathways Initiative To Train Formerly Incarcerated People In Legal Field

January 21, 2021

Today, Manhattan District Attorney Candidate Lucy Lang released a comprehensive reentry plan to support incarcerated individuals as they transition out of prison and return home. The plan was developed in collaboration with an advisory council of formerly incarcerated people, in order to incorporate and elevate the voices of those most impacted by the criminal justice system. Members of the advisory council include Lang’s former students, who participated in her first-of-its-kind, semester-long, college-in-prison course which brought assistant district attorneys and incarcerated students together to study criminal justice side-by-side in New York prisons.

In recognition of her pioneering work on this program, Lang received the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award, a $25,0000 award given by the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust to professors who have inspired former students to achieve greatness. In conjunction with her reentry plan, Lang announced that she will be donating the $25,000 award to Columbia Law School’s Paralegal Pathways Initiative, which helps train formerly incarcerated individuals in the legal field. The additional funding will go directly towards supporting justice-impacted coaches, stipends for participants, and operational needs.

“It’s never too late to change a life – I know that because Lucy’s college in prison course helped change mine,” said Michele Gantt, a former Inside Criminal Justice student.

“I know that Lucy is the right candidate to bring change to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office – and I know it firsthand because her college-in-prison class has already changed my life,” said Jarrell Daniels Program Manager, Justice Ambassadors Youth Council. “A lot of people talk about criminal justice reform, but what sets Lucy apart is that she’s actually done the work – she’s gone into prisons, worked with formerly incarcerated people and understands our concerns.”

“Lucy Lang’s contribution to the Paralegal Pathways Initiative exemplifies her commitment to enabling Columbia Law School to inspire other people, particularly those affected by mass incarceration, to make a difference in their communities--qualities that were honored by Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award,” said Susan Sturm, Director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School and Devon Simmons, Project Director. “This contribution will enable the Paralegal Pathways Initiative at Columbia Law School to provide community advocates directly impacted by the criminal legal system with a training course that will help them in utilizing the legal skills they developed during their incarceration to gain long-term, meaningful employment as legal professionals. Lucy’s commitment to hiring paralegals who have completed PPI’s training course to work at the Manhattan DA’s office makes concrete her commitment to investing in communities affected by incarceration, and will enable the next generation of prosecutors and defense attorneys to develop a more nuanced understanding of the issues justice impacted individuals face prior to meeting them in the courtroom. “

“Lucy Lang is an inspiration and has done so much to help people affected by a plagued justice system,” said Jerrel Gantt, a former Inside Criminal Justice student. “With genuine care and compassion I don’t trust anyone but Lucy to start the work to change a system that was set up to help but ultimately harms. I stand with Lucy 100%. I am excited to work alongside her as her bold policy ideas become the grassroots to changing lives for the better.”

“The current system is failing to give justice-impacted people the tools they need to succeed upon reentry. It’s not just failing individuals, it’s failing entire communities,” said Manhattan District Attorney Candidate Lucy Lang. “Every person deserves a fair chance to find a good job, stable and secure housing, and a bright future – something that far too many formerly incarcerated people are shut out of. I’m honored to continue working alongside the people most impacted by the criminal justice system to ensure they get the support they need, and to prevent them from getting trapped in the system in the first place. I’m committed not just to hiring formerly incarcerated people, but to ensuring that they are heard and represented at every level of the office.”

Each year, nearly 650,000 people are released from prison and over 11 million are released from jail. For far too many, however, this return is only temporary, due to barriers to obtaining jobs and housing, severe debt from the criminal-legal process, the loss of civic rights, onerous conditions of post-release supervision, and a host of other obstacles that can bar people from even the most basic activities. Taken together, this perpetuates a horrifying cycle: people are released from correctional facilities with even fewer resources than when they entered, sent back to communities where they are systematically prohibited from engaging in every aspect of a healthy life, and find themselves in the same circumstances that led to their incarceration in the first place.

Lang knows that successful reentry requires both front-end and back-end solutions: preventing people from becoming ensnared by criminal justice involvement and providing them with the resources to succeed when they do.

Front-End Solutions: It is a District Attorney’s obligation to consider collateral consequences of her decision-making at every step of the process. That is why Lang is committed to reimagining reentry with a preventative lens, and accounting for the heavy toll that justice system involvement will take when deciding whether and with what to charge someone. To this end, Lang will:

  • Exercise discretion to prevent people from entering the justice system when their involvement will cause excessive harm (e.g. when future challenges to reentry outweigh the current risk to public safety)

  • Devise responsible charge declination policies that account for historical inequities, particularly with respect to policing of communities of color, and structural inequalities that contribute to poverty, resulting in increased quality-of-life and other non-violent conduct

  • Encourage ADAs to factor reentry and recidivism risks into their initial decision-making regarding charging and recommendations for bail and pre-trial detention

  • Support individualized determinations of the conditions of pretrial and post-sentence supervision that account for the unique needs and risks of every person

  • Communicate to the NYPD that reentry is a top priority for the DA’s office

  • Waive mandatory court surcharges, fines, and fees

  • Eliminate cash bail, and develop supervised release programming including peer navigators to ensure the people are able to stay in their communities successfully during the pendency of their case

  • Advocate for placement consistent with peoples’ needs, in cases in which prison is used as a last resort, enabling people to be incarcerated closer to family and in facilities with services relevant to their needs

  • Begin reentry planning prior to disposition in collaboration with defense counsel

  • Develop protocols in conjunction with survivor advocates for approving of parole board release at the earliest eligible date, in the absence of exceptional circumstances that constitute a clear, demonstrable risk to public safety

  • End the use of someone’s parole status as an aggravating factor in bail and sentencing decisions for low-level crimes

Back-End Solutions: A District Attorney’s obligation should extend to giving people the tools to succeed both within prison and outside of it. To better achieve this and break-down existing barriers to reentry, Lucy will:

  • Support correctional education and vocational programs and push lawmakers to collect better data on the availability of these programs across New York State. Support increased accessibility for program providers to gain access to teaching on the inside

  • Help people maintain their support networks while incarcerated by advocating for placement into correctional facilities as close to their residence as possible, and advocating for opportunities for family visitation and communication

  • Partner with community-based organizations to ease the reentry process by connecting people with community-specific assistance in devising a plan for release

  • Advocate for the removal of barriers for returning citizens such as prohibitions on living in NYCHA housing and criminal history disclosure requirements

  • Committing to hiring formerly incarcerated people to work at the DA’s office in a variety of policy and office functions

  • Support programs that provide immediate support and service linking to people returning from jail and prison to facilitate housing needs, employment, further educational attainment, health services, and medical treatment

  • Develop programs geared toward addressing family restoration for people who have experienced long-term incarceration

  • Support “ban-the-box” and other initiatives that seek to limit the collateral consequences of a criminal record for employment and other essential activities

  • Actively seeking out opportunities for the retroactive sealing and/or expungement of criminal records for low-level crimes and other non-violent offenses

  • Support pre-release career assessments for people during incarceration to understand their skills and talents in order to prepare them for the field of their choice

  • Advocate to end the use of drug-related violations as a justification for denying parole and for re-incarcerating people on parole, and instead offering clinical services if and when recommended by a health professional

  • Ensure the capacity of prisons to meet individual health needs by expanding access to treatments for substance misuse, mental health and behavioral challenges, and retroactively diverting people out of the prison system where their needs cannot be met within it

To learn more about Lucy’s priorities, visit her plans page.