2026 Advocacy
End Prison Violence 2026 Agenda
End Prison Violence (EPV), in partnership with a growing coalition of advocates, formerly incarcerated leaders, community organizations, & policy and legal experts have launched a bold statewide campaign to transform prison culture. Our goal is to end prison violence and create a system of corrections rooted in dignity, independent oversight, healing and shared humanity, all while working towards more pathways home and prison closures.
The End Prison Violence Campaign is committed to regulatory, litigation, policy and legislative solutions in three key areas relating to corrections: Transparency, Accountability & Oversight; Healthcare; & Conditions of Confinement & Pathways Home.
Conditions of Confinement & Justice for Vulnerable People
There are five pieces of legislation that are worthy of immediate action that would protect incarcerated women and adult survivors of prison assault. There remains a pressing need for comprehensive policy for ensuring basic quality of care for incarcerated pregnant and post-partum individuals, as well as their babies. Additionally, there is an urgent need to protect in-person visits for people behind bars.
A4879A/S4583A (Kelles/Salazar) - Known as the CARE Act, this bill relates to the health, safety and human rights of incarcerated pregnant individuals, incarcerated birthing parents of children and their children.
A1670/ S2667 (Rosenthal/Salazar): This bill prohibits the use of force against pregnant people in custody; strengthens prohibitions around the shackling of pregnant and post-partum people in custody; adds (currently lacking) prohibitions against the shackling of pregnant people in police custody; and ensures that pregnant and laboring people in prison and jails are given privacy and support while receiving medical care.
A1607A/S2666 (Rosenthal/Salazar): This bill would provide breast pumps to certain incarcerated birth parents and requires extensive reporting of data related to pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and nursery program access and participation.
A8635A (Rosenthal): The sexual abuse of women behind bars, while unacceptable anywhere, has reached epic proportions in New York State. According to the Department of Justice, which reported on sexual victimization in American prisons, the prison with the highest percentage of incarcerated people reporting sexual victimization by staff in the United States is Bedford Hills, known for its particularly brutal conditions of late. This bill would provide exceptions to specificity requirements for incarcerated individuals in the Court of Claims Act, e.g. exact timing of an event, in certain cases involving sexual assault, allowing the cases of hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse to proceed when such specificity is impossible.
A4250A/S2841A (Weprin/Sepulveda): This bill would ensure in-person visits by amending New York State Correction Law to proactively ensure that New York’s jails and prisons cannot reduce or eliminate in-person visits in favor of video conferencing.
Independent Oversight
The End Prison Violence campaign is also committed to assuring fulsome and independent investigations of allegations of acts of violence and abuse by correctional staff. Further, the campaign to End Prison Violence supports efforts that interrupt an arbitration process that has been shown to re-install the vast majority of correctional staff that DOCCS itself has sought to terminate. EPV is actively working with Senator Salazar and other legislative leaders to develop and enhance legislative proposals to effectuate these goals.
Medical & Healthcare
The following additional bills, guiding medical professionals and healthcare, also warrant action:
S8106 (Salazar) - removes death investigations from county coroners and creates an independent medical examiner system
S7865/A8286 (Salazar/Kelles) - prohibits participation in torture by correctional healthcare professionals
S360/A2149 (Rivera/Gonzalez-Rojas) - enhances oversight of correctional healthcare by increasing the Department of Health’s authority to investigate and evaluate healthcare services in correctional facilities.
Pathways Home/Addressing Excessive Sentencing
Several other pieces of legislation are also on the table this year with advocates from other organizations taking the lead, but with EPV’s support. Several of these would improve processes that give incarcerated people a second chance at release when they demonstrate growth, rehabilitation, and improvement while incarcerated.
The Second Look Act (S.158/ A.1283), which would allow incarcerated individuals in New York State to apply for a judge to review their sentence to assess whether the sentence is still appropriate after they have served 10 or more years.
The Earned Time Act (S.342/ A.1085) which would increase the amount of time people can earn off of their sentences by participating in rehabilitative programs and demonstrating good behavior.
The Elder Parole Act (S.454/A.514) which would allow incarcerated people aged 55 and older who have served at least 15 years to apply for parole release consideration. It would not automatically grant anyone parole.
The Fair and Timely Parole Act (S159/A127), which would ensure that parole decisions would be made based mainly on who an incarcerated person is today, including evidence of rehabilitation and their current risk of violating the law.
The Marvin Mayfield Act (S.1209/A1297) would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, which require judges to impose a minimum state prison sentence for certain offenses. The bill would instead allow judges to consider the individual facts of the case and any mitigating circumstances and impose the sentence they deem appropriate.
Defend Laws that Enhance Public Safety
In 2026, it is imperative that we defend past gains that help to nurture healthier and safer correctional environments and to contain and prevent the brutality that has long plagued NY prisons. These include ensuring that Raise the Age remains law and that children are not thrown in a brutal & already overtaxed adult correctional system; and ensuring that the advancements developed in the HALT Solitary law - passed in 2021 by supermajorities - are honored.
Be part of
the change.
Together, we can move beyond reaction—and toward a future where prisons are no longer places of violence, but spaces of accountability, safety, and human dignity.