Clean Slate New York
Ending Perpetual Punishment for 2.3 Million New Yorkers.
Across the New York, we’re seeing our movement achieve historic wins for fairness, racial justice, public health, and public safety. New laws aimed at bail reform and Marijuana legalization that reinvests the profits into the communities most impacted are extraordinary successes for public health and safety. Click below to learn more about our fight for Criminal Justice and Civil Rights.
Despite all this, a calculated misinformation campaign threatens our state's critical progress. Prosecutors and police are fighting back with the same polarizing scare tactics that created mass incarceration to perpetuate it. We must demand an end to unjust and unfair pre trial detentions.
FACT: NEARLY ALL PEOPLE WHO ARE AT LIBERTY PRE-TRIAL ARE NOT REARRESTED AT ALL, LET ALONE FOUND GUILTY FOR ALLEGATIONS INVOLVING VIOLENCE OR GUN CHARGESFACT:
Fact: MORE PRETRIAL FREEDOM MEANS MORE–NOT LESS– PUBLIC SAFETY.
Pretrial jailing undermines the health of individuals, families, and entire neighborhoods. Incarceration is characterized by the very same drivers of violence: shame, isolation, economic deprivation, trauma, and violence itself. Those who go into jail with challenges — lack of resources, substance use, mental health concerns, joblessness, unstable housing, and/or trauma — return to their communities with these challenges compounded by the destabilizing and harmful effects of incarceration. Others return with entirely new challenges as a result of the harm they endured.
Clean Slate is a nonpartisan campaign to advance state and national expungement policies that unlock opportunity and greater economic security for millions of Americans with criminal records.
HCHC joined the Clean Slate New York (CSNY) campaign during the fall of 2020 to support campaign strategy development, base-building and community outreach efforts with a specific eye to representing the interests of the Hudson Valley, Capital Region and Upstate NY and garnering support for CSNY in these key regions.
Bail reform remains as a key issue in NY as campaign season begins across the state.
Under we would like some links to some news around our work,
Our work in the News
https://bostonreview.net/race-law-justice/lisa-cacho-jodi-melamed-how-police-abuse-charge-resisting-arrest
https://daphnejordan.com/albanys-dangerous-bail-reform-law-makes-us-less-safe
Legislative Session Ends June 10th
EMAIL, TWEET, or CALL NOW
The best way to help Clean Slate NY tonight is to click the red button above. You will be taken to Clean Slate NY’s website application that will automatically send a message to the New York Representatives. This is an easy and fast way to let our politicians know what the people want. On the application, there are icons at the top of the form for you to choose your preferred mode of contact. Pick an icon and fill out the form! It’s that simple!!
The New York legislative session is ending and it's important that a decision be made in regards to the Clean Slate Initiative. The amount of action for ending perpetual punishment has been tremendous and we thank you for the support thus-far. There is still time to act and we ask you to help us in this final push!
Call New York's leaders - Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie - and tell them to pass Clean Slate this week! Here are their numbers and a template phone script:
Call New York's leaders - Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie - and tell them to pass Clean Slate this week! Here are their numbers and a template phone script:
Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins: 518-455-2585
Assembly Speaker Heastie: 518-455-3791
Sample Phone Script: My name is ___________from _________ [city/county in NY]. I’m calling today to urge New York’s leaders to pass the Clean Slate Act (S.1553a/A.6399) before the end of this year’s legislative session. The Clean Slate Act would end the perpetual punishment of New Yorkers with a conviction record. From employment to housing, to higher education, a conviction record can cause a lifetime of blocked opportunity. Records clearance will allow New Yorkers to access jobs, housing and other life essentials. I am personally invested in this issue because [add your own reasons]. I urge you as leadership to make sure the legislature passes this vital legislation before the end of session. Will you pass on my message? Thank you!
Join us this week by taking a selfie with a Clean Slate sign and posting on social media!
How to do it
Make a sign in support of Clean Slate. For example:
Pass Clean Slate Now!
End Perpetual Punishment. Pass Clean Slate!
Take a selfie with your sign
Post on Twitter or Facebook and tag Carl Heastie (@CarlHeastie) and Andrea Stewart-Cousins (@AndreaSCousins)
Sample Photo
Sample Tweet:
I am calling on @AndreaSCousins and @CarlHeastie to support the Clean Slate Act to end perpetual punishment and address the legacy of mass incarceration. 2.3 million New Yorkers have a conviction record and face barriers to jobs, housing and education. We need #CleanSlateNY. [Add your photo & tag 10 legislators or partners