Issue Position: Criminal Justice Reform

Issue Position

As a lawyer who has donated countless hours of pro-bono services to people and communities of need, including juveniles serving mandatory life sentences, I recognize criminal justice reform as one of the most pressing issues of our time. For too long, our lawmakers have enacted ineffective policies in a failing war on drugs, while countless families in the Hudson Valley and Catskills have lost loved ones to addiction. In recent years, our district has been one of the regions hit hardest by the rising opioid epidemic, and its costs have been born by all of us, regardless of race, economic status, or political party.

We need to reform the system to account for this harsh reality. I will work with healthcare professionals and other experts to enact policies that treat rather than criminalize drug addiction. I will fight to increase funding for proven alternatives to incarceration, including treatment programs, drug courts, and mental health courts. And I will commit to supporting efforts to exonerate the wrongfully convicted through the use of DNA testing. It is time that we face this crisis head on, with empathy, not animus; with ideas, not impulse; and with courage, not politics.

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