The Legal Aid Society joined fellow defenders, lawmakers, advocates, and impacted New Yorkers on Human Rights Day in support of the historic reforms enacted this past year to New York’s outmoded and punitive bail, discovery, and speedy trial statutes. These reforms will help to unravel a system that long criminalized poverty, fed mass incarceration, led to wrongful convictions, and contributed to court delays. These pretrial reforms take effect January 1, 2020, according to the New York Daily News.

“Your time is up,” said Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, in response to fear-mongering skeptics of the new reforms. “We have three more weeks before Jan. 1 to bring justice to this legal system once and for all.”