Advocates call for prison sentencing reform

Advocates and lawmakers called on the legislature to pass several sentencing reform bills during the 2026 legislative session during a rally on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. Photo courtesy of the Center for Community Alternatives

By Noah Powelson

Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered on the steps of the State Capitol to call on lawmakers to pass a series of prison sentencing reform bills on Monday.

Organized by the Center for Community Alternatives, advocates, elected officials and family members of incarcerated people called on the state to pass the Second Look Act, the Earned Time Act and the Marvin Mayfield Act during the 2026 legislative session. Two of the bills would enact ways for incarcerated people to have their minimum sentences reduced, while the third — the Marvin Mayfield Act — would abolish minimum sentences altogether.

Speakers at the rally said that current laws around minimum sentences put physically and mentally ill incarcerated people in danger, and that several of the deaths of those living in state correctional facilities could have been prevented if they were able to leave earlier.

Monica Lynch, a CCA member whose son died at the Mid-State Correctional in upstate New York, spoke at the rally and said that because of the mandatory minimum sentence her son received after he was convicted, a judge was unable to release him earlier despite health concerns. As a result, Lynch said, her son died a few months before he was scheduled for release.

“My son was 28 years old. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He was just two months away from coming home when he was found dead in DOCCS’ custody at Mid-State Correctional Facility,” Lynch said. “There needs to be a different approach to sentencing in New York State right now. No mother should ever have to carry the kind of pain that I carry. I am tired of hearing about people being abused, neglected, and killed in prison. I'm here to say this cannot be accepted as normal.”

Queens and Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar, who sponsors the Senate version of the Second Look Act, said at the rally that bills would not release incarcerated people automatically, as critics have warned, but that release would still require a judge’s evaluation and decision.

“We must pass legislation like the Second Look Act and the Earned Time Act because thousands and thousands of New Yorkers are unnecessarily languishing behind bars for decades on end. This is despite the fact that we know keeping people in prison for so long does nothing to reduce or deter crime,” Salazar said in a statement. “By passing the Second Look Act, we’d be allowing judges to reassess these excessively harsh or unfair sentences given to incarcerated individuals. It's not a guarantee of release, ​but it's a second look at deeply unjust circumstances."

Robert Brooks, Jr., whose father was killed by correctional officers at Marcy Correctional Facility last year, also spoke at the rally. His father’s death was recorded by body-worn cameras and later released to the public last year, sparking waves of outrage and demands for prison reform.

Brooks Jr. said he believed his father would still be alive if it weren’t for minimum sentencing laws.

“My father, Robert Brooks, was murdered by a swarm of prison guards at Marcy Correctional Facility just over a year ago. The apartment I’m in now I got with the extra bedroom because I thought he was coming home,” Robert Brooks Jr., said in a statement. “I truly believe that if these bills had been in effect, my dad would have been home before he was murdered. He would not have been left in a position where officers had the opportunity to bully and brutalize a handcuffed man.”