Top New York state judge advocates for statute authorizing second-look sentencing

As reported in this New York Times piece, the "chief judge of New York State’s highest court urged the State Legislature on Monday to pass a bill that would allow prisoners who have been locked up for years to apply for reduced sentences."  Here is more:

The judge, Rowan Wilson, who oversees the state’s entire court system, said in his annual address at the Court of Appeals in Albany that the proposed legislation, known as the Second Look Act, would give people who committed crimes years ago an opportunity to show they no longer pose a danger and could be a benefit to society.

“Put simply, our criminal justice system isn’t working. Maybe it hasn’t really ever worked,” Judge Wilson said. “Prolonged incarceration is very expensive, and it does not make us safer.”...

The second-look bill would allow people serving prison terms of 10 years or longer to apply to judges and ask them to re-evaluate their sentences.  The aim is to “address the harms caused by New York’s history of imposing overly harsh sentences, including those required by mandatory minimums,” according to its language....

In his speech, Judge Wilson highlighted what he said were signs that the “traditional” model of the legal system was not working.  He pointed out that the United States is home to 5 percent of the world’s population, but 20 percent of its incarcerated people; that the felony conviction rate is significantly higher for New Yorkers of color than their white peers; and that the age of incarcerated New Yorkers is rising because of longer prison sentences.

“Over-incarceration has everything to do with the courts,” he said. “No prosecutor, jury, legislator or executive branch official imposed a prison sentence. Everyone sentenced to a New York prison was sentenced by a judge of the Unified Court System.”