The New York City Bar Association is urging federal and state leaders to “make the reduction of mass incarceration a top priority,” the New York Times reports. In a report, Mass Incarceration: Seizing the Moment for Reform,” the organization report offers recommendations for changing sentencing laws and other policies on the state and federal levels, including repealing or reducing mandatory minimum terms, reducing sentences for nonviolent offenses and providing sentencing alternatives to prison.
Federal District Judge Jed Rakoff of Manhattan, a member of the association's executive committee, said, “Judges did not make the laws that have led to mass incarceration, but we have had to implement them and we have seen firsthand, therefore, some of the terrible results.” He added, “We have a role to play in trying to make the public aware of problems in the criminal justice system in our country that we as judges see and participate in every day of our lives.” The City Bar Association is creating a task force comprising defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges and others to continue examining the issue.