Category: New York Focus
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Prison Department Writes Its Way Out of Following Solitary Confinement Law — Again
After months of ignoring reforms, the corrections department published new rules. They look a lot like the old rules.
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Hochul’s Budget Pads Prosecution Funding Without Match for Public Defense
The governor proposed an outsized boost worth tens of millions for prosecutors — drawing comparisons to New York’s history of public defense neglect.
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Can Anyone Make New York Prisons Follow Solitary Confinement Law?
A recent hearing was legislators’ chance to have acting prison commissioner Anthony Annucci explain himself. They didn’t make him.
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Hochul’s New Bail Reform Plan Would Reverse Decades-Old Protections
Long before 2019, New York law mandated that judges setting bail consider only a person’s likelihood of returning to court. Hochul’s proposal would strip that limit.
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‘Hot Spot’ Cops Killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Hochul Wants More in New York.
The controversial units have been responsible for high-profile killings and civil rights abuses in cities nationwide. Hochul doubled their state grant funding in New York — and wants to double it again.
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Hochul Wants More Police Surveillance. Legislators Want Boundaries.
Legislators are taking aim at a host of police surveillance tools, from undercover social media accounts to facial recognition to aerial drones.
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The State Police Are Watching Your Social Media
The New York State Police bought social media monitoring programs that have violated platforms’ policies and been used to surveil Black Lives Matter protesters.
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‘No B Officer’: How an Understaffed Rikers Island Allowed Another Suicide
New documents obtained by New York Focus offer a glimpse into the last hours of Kevin Bryan’s life. His was one of several recent deaths at Rikers in dorms with unstaffed posts.
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To Implement a New Law, Prisons Likely Broke Another
Legislators told the prison department it was violating a solitary confinement reform law. So it ignored them.
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The State Police Want to Crack Your Phone
The Israeli firm Cellebrite offers tools that unlock data, trawl search histories, and perform facial recognition. The New York State Police are in the market.
Chris Gelardi 