Legislating Reform: An Empirical Examination of New York City’s Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2016

• In Event: Roundtable: The Impacts of Criminal Justice Legislation and Policy

Abstract

Recent years have evidenced increased scholarly attention to the unintended consequences of quality of life policing, including reduced trust between communities and the police and the disparate impact of this policing strategy on communities of color. Similarly, policy makers at the local, state, and national level have increasingly identified criminal justice policy reform as a political priority. This research will examine the impact of one example of city-level legislative and policy change aimed at reducing the negative outcomes associated with harsh enforcement of lower-level offending— New York City’s Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2016 (CJRA). CJRA creates a presumption, absent certain aggravating factors, that some lower-level offenses (e.g., public drinking, public urination, littering, and noise and park violations) will result in a civil instead of criminal summons. CJRA is expected to reduce the number of open warrants for arrest (due to non-appearance or non-payment) and to reduce the financial penalties and collateral consequence (i.e. immigration, housing, and employment) of criminal summonses. This research will examine how the volume and distribution of summonses and open warrants changed with the enactment of CJRA.

Authors

• Kerry Mulligan, The Misdemeanor Justice Project, John Jay College

• Carla Barrett, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Allie Meizlish, Associate Counsel, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice