Facts and Policy Reforms for New York
Like most states, New York’s prison population skyrocketed in the 1980s and 90s.
The number of people in New York’s prisons grew by by 250 percent between 1979 and 1999, when it reached its peak of 72,899 people. Partially due to a series of policy reforms, most notably changes to sentencing guidelines created by the ‘Rockefeller Drug Laws,’ that number has since dropped. As of January 1, 2018 there were 49,473 people imprisoned in the state. An additional 22,860 people were also being held in local jails in New York. Most were either detained pretrial, had not yet had a sentencing hearing, or were being held for a state or federal agency.
The number of annual admissions to New York prisons dropped by 28 percent between 2008 and 2018, when 19,395 people were admitted to prison in the state. Drug offenses were the most common offense type for people sentenced to prison in 2015, accounting for one in four (23 percent) of new admissions, although that number dropped significantly since 2000, when nearly half (46 percent) of admissions were for drug offenses. Other common offenses that resulted in people being sent to prison in 2015 included burglary (15 percent), robbery (14 percent), weapons offenses (9 percent), and assault (8 percent).
Unsurprisingly, New York’s incarceration crisis has had a particularly severe impact on people of color, especially Black people. The number of Black New Yorkers imprisoned per 100,000 adult residents in 2017 was nearly seven times higher than the equivalent rate for white New Yorkers. Despite accounting for only 14 percent of the total adult population in New York, Black people accounted for 48 percent of the population under the custody of the NY Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS).
The majority of people imprisoned in New York are parents. In 2017, at least 60 percent of men and 72 percent of women incarcerated by DOCCS had at least one child.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
New York can dramatically reduce its incarcerated population by implementing just a few sensible reforms:
- Moving away from a culture of criminalization and looking at alternatives to incarceration, especially for activities that are in large part responses to being denied access to quality education, housing, and jobs.
- Eliminate money bail for all offenses.
- Expanding treatment options for people who have mental health and substance use challenges so that incarceration is not the first response.
- Expanding access to compassionate release from prison.
- Reducing the number of people sent to prison for technical violations of their probation or parole.
Were New York to follow these and other reforms outlined in the ACLU’s Smart Justice blueprint, by 2025 it could have 24,100 fewer people in prison, saving over $2.5 billion dollars that could be spent on schools, roads, and other services for state residents.
For more information, along with detailed breakdowns of New York’s prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.