Republican lawmakers share their vision for a "Safer New York"

As New York State’s 2023 Legislative Session continues, members of the Senate and Assembly Republican Conference gathered in Albany to advocate for criminal justice initiatives in the Rescue New York legislative agenda.

The agenda prioritizes a “Safer, Stronger, More Affordable and More Free New York” with what Republican lawmakers have described as common sense solutions to things like bail reform and the academic gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Safer New York proposal seeks to reverse legislation like HALT and Raise the Age, reject proposals like the Clean Slate Act, reduce gun crimes and invest in law enforcement. Lawmakers maintain that a rise in crime can be combated by allowing judges to set bail, ensuring Raise the Age prosecutes 16 and 17-year-olds with gang or gun-related offenses as adults and supporting crime victims through lifetime protection orders. 

Tammy Patrick is the daughter of John Lee, a 77-year-old man who was murdered. Patrick says the person convicted of killing him was released hours before the crime occurred. 

“It’s time to give discretion back to the judges and keep violent criminals off our streets,” Tammy Patrick said.

“Although nothing will change for my family, I am hoping to save other families from the trauma and grief that we have experienced.”

Sen. Tom O’Mara, who serves New York State’s Southern Tier, referenced his days as a prosecutor as he spoke of what he calls “the consequences of having no consequences.

“A good portion of the reforms of bail and discovery could have reasonably and rationally been done without the consequences that we see here,” the senator said. “It’s the extremes that are controlling both houses of the state legislature; they go too far and have gone too far.”

The criminal justice reform policies in question are HALT and Raise the Age. The Human Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement Act puts a 15 day restriction on segregated confinement, creates therapeutic alternatives to segregated confinement and bans segregated confinement for inmates from vulnerable populations. Raise the Age legislation prohibited children under 18-years-old from being prosecuted in New York State. Assm. Minority Leader Will Barclay serves the 120th district, he said these bail reform policies did not have the intended impact.

“Unfortunately with these criminal justice reforms – whether you call it bail reform, Raise the Age, etcetera – they are actually making things worse. Because of these reforms, we’ve compromised public safety, we’ve undermined law enforcement’s ability to do their job and we hamstrung judges by stripping away their ability to keep imprisoned violent criminals without bail,” Leader Barclay said.

The Rescue New York package created initiatives are organized by the following: A Safer New York, A Stronger New York, A More Affordable New York,  and  More Free New York.