New York City’s public defender organizations, The Legal Aid Society, the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service, New York County Defender Services, and Queens Defenders, have outlined their legislative priorities for 2022 in a letter to Governer Kathy Hochul, as reported by Spectrum News.

The groups are pushing for an extensive list of critical criminal justice reforms to be passed when lawmakers return to Albany for the new legislative session which begins on January 5.

“We urge your offices to do everything in your power to reduce the number of people being held inside these jails and to reduce the number of people being sent to jail across the state,” the letter reads in part. “Albany must lead by enacting legislation that invests in communities, not cages, overhauls our racist parole system, seals records and empowers New Yorkers, reduces law enforcement budgets, curbs discriminatory hyper-surveillance, protects New York’s immigrant communities, recognizes the harm of family separation caused by removal of children from their parents and placing them in the foster system, and protects young people who deserve compassion, not incarceration.”

Read the full list of legislative priorities here.