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Katal New York Update- September 29, 2022

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Celebrating the 1-Year Anniversary of #LessIsMoreNY

Last week, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Less Is More Act. Less Is More restricts the use of incarceration for non-criminal technical parole violations, bolsters due process for people accused of parole violations, and provides earned time credits for people on parole. 

Thus far, the new law cut the parole population in New York by nearly 40%  – affording more than 13,000 New Yorkers the opportunity to secure housing, maintain employment, go back to school, reconnect with loved ones, and much more. Additionally, approximately 1,500 people were released from jails and prisons and there’s been a nearly 90 percent decrease in the number of people detained for technical violations in local jails across the state. Check out the campaigns press release here

Our member Gretchen said: “I am beyond happy to finally be done with parole a year and a half early due to Less Is More. I’m now a full-time driver for Amazon and live with my amazing wife and three children. I look forward to helping formerly incarcerated individuals with their reentry process.”To learn more about this transformative parole reform and to read success stories from those impacted by the law, click here.  You can also share your own story about how #LessIsMoreNY impacted you!


Rally at City Hall to End Solitary Confinement

#HALTsolitary Rally on the Steps of City Hall 9.28.22

Yesterday, we joined #HALTsolitary, NYC Jails Action Coalitions, people who survived solitary, families of those currently incarcerated, and other community groups to demand the New York City Council pass Intro No. 549 to immediately to end solitary confinement in NYC jails. Solitary confinement is considered torture and it damages and destroys people’s minds and bodies. The continued use of solitary confinement is part of a broader crisis on Rikers Island that has resulted in 16 people dying in DOC custody this year. To watch yestesday’s rally, check out our Instagram.In junction with yesterday’s rally, Melania Brown, the sister of Layleen Polanco who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island in 2019, wrote an op-ed about the need to end solitary. Take action here to urge your City Council members to act to end solitary confinement.


Katal Quotes of the Week

These are some of the quotes we’re thinking about this week.

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

 ―  Arundhati Roy,  War Talk


For printing and distribution, download the Katal Weekly Update PDF version.

Katal works to strengthen the people, policies, institutions, and movements that advance equity, health, and justice. Join us: web, Twitter, Facebook! Email: info@katalcenter.org Phone: 646.875.8822.

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