The Legal Aid Society has released its post-budget legislative priorities across the Civil, Criminal Defense, and Juvenile Rights Practices. The organization is calling on lawmakers to pass a comprehensive set of bills that will improve the lives of their clients and all New Yorkers.

Priorities for the Civil Practice include keeping people in their homes through “good cause” eviction protections; investing in a public housing trust; reforming public assistance and Medicaid processes; addressing labor in the State’s prisons; and ending New York’s participation in the immigration detention business.

Read the full list of Civil priorities here.

The Criminal Defense Practice, together with New York City’s other defender organizations, is urging lawmakers to end the stigma for over 2 million New Yorkers living with a conviction record through the Clean Slate Act. Their priorities also include reforms to parole proceedings; and legislation that would ensure treatment as an alternative to jail for those who live with mental illness, substance use disorders, and other disabilities

Read the full list of Criminal Defense priorities here.

The Juvenile Rights Practice is focused on proposals that would reduce the racist legacy of both the child welfare system and juvenile legal systems and make them more just. Priorities include the right to counsel and during interrogations; ending the school to prison pipeline; ensuring proper funding and benefits for children and families navigating the foster care system; and reforming the State Central Register to reduce abuse.

Read the full list of Juvenile Rights priorities here.