Katal in the News

Prison reform advocates say Gov. Kathy Hochul isn’t holding up her end of the bargain when it comes to appointing commissioners to fully staff the State Commission of Correction (SCOC), which is New…

The state Commission on Correction is supposed to get a shakeup of its leadership and mandate under state law, but not much has happened yet. We discuss the prison oversight agency with Yonah Zeitz…

The Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to restore $3 million in funding to the nonprofit Correctional Association of New York, which monitors conditions inside…

This year marks the deadliest start for state prisons in at least six years, according to findings recently reported by the watchdog Correctional Association of New York (CANY). The findings account…

NEW YORK — A 41-year-old woman died May 18, 2026, at the Rose M. Singer Center jail on Rikers Island, marking the third person to die while in custody on the island this year and intensifying scruti…

New York’s most powerful prison and jail oversight agency has hit a roadblock as it waits for Governor Kathy Hochul to comply with a new law. As part of a popular push for prison refo…

NEW YORK — New York’s prison system continues to face unrest and uncertainty as prison death rates reach their highest levels in six years, prompting renewed calls for Gov. Kathy Hochul to fully f…

While an expansion of the state’s prison oversight agency went into effect over the weekend, the agency cannot function until the governor and legislature appoint new board members, advocates warned…

ALBANY, N.Y. — A new reform measure expanding the New York State Commission of Correction from three to five commissioners has been implemented, as advocates and lawmakers continue pushing for stron…

Rikers Island is a horrible place to die, and this year, two New Yorkers have already lost their lives there. Barry Cozart, 39, died on March 25, followed shortly by 49-year-old John Price, who died o…

A 49-year-old man from Queens awaiting trial on Rikers Island died on Sunday, becoming the second detainee in the troubled jail complex to die in the last week. John Price, who had been held on Rikers…