Press Room

Following the Tuesday special election in City Council District 12, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released a platform today for improving election administration and expanding voting rights in New York. The city and state have seen perennial problems with election administration which date back across many years and election cycles, and which were on display for the entire nation during the 2020 general election. The additional challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated existing issues, and systemic reforms in election administration, as well as legislative solutions to expand and protect access to voting, are long overdue. On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo finally signed legislation from Assembly Member Latrice Walker and State Senator Mike Gianaris to institute automatic voter registration in New York, and additional legislative and agency-level actions must be urgently addressed.

"Voting is one of the most direct ways for people to raise their voices and create change, yet our electoral systems are often stubbornly resistant to change and silencing of voices." said Public Advocate Williams on releasing the platform. "Enacting these reforms is crucial to our city and state fulfilling their obligation to make voting as easy, accessible, and safe as possible, for as many people as possible. New York's electoral systems must be based on civic responsibility, not political gamesmanship, to be able to meet the needs of New Yorkers who deserve to be able to vote for a government that reflects and represents our communities."

Among the proposals identified within Public Advocate Williams' reform platform are:

Reform the Board of Elections Contracting Process

In the 2020 Election, the company contracted by the BOE caused severe issues when it sent out 100,000 incorrect ballots. They must be held accountable, but there must also be larger reform. On the front end, transparent competitive bidding processes must be  used. On the back end, there must be robust oversight and quality control mechanisms in place so that such errors never  happen again.

Implement Ranked-Choice Voting Effectively

Ranked Choice Voting will change the way we elect leaders for the better, helping to make sure that all communities and all voters are better represented - voters knew this in 2019, when the vast majority elected to adopt the practice in New York City. The system has since come under many largely unfounded attacks, but the greatest threat to its successful implementation at this point is the city's own inaction.  It is critical that the City carries out a robust and culturally competent public education effort that ensures voters have all the information they need to cast a ballot effectively. This outreach must occur in languages that match the diversity of New York City communities. The City Council must pass Int. 1994 (Ampry-Samuel) to help the Campaign Finance Board implement a robust citywide campaign. Our office will work to hold all responsible to account so that the necessary work is done by city agencies and community based organizations, and will be actively engaged in reaching New Yorkers in advance of the upcoming special elections. Ranked Choice Voting is as important a democratic reform now as it was when New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted to implement it over a year ago, and the city has an obligation to fulfill the will of the voters and ensure that this new form of voting is put in place in a way that is clear to voters and operationally sound.

Improve Voting By Mail

The  state should implement a "No-Excuse" vote-by-mail system, and pay for and provide pre-paid postage on all absentee ballots  so that no ballot can be rejected for lacking stamps. The BOE must work to increase its counting capacity so that  accurate election results can be delivered to the public in a  significantly more timely fashion.

Improve In-Person Voting and Staffing

The Board of Elections must ensure the number  of ballot-on-demand printers at polling sites meets the needs of each district's population. It must require all  centers and institutions that receive taxpayer funding to be poll  sites, in order to create better distribution of voters at poll sites  across the city and shorter wait times.

Increase Voting Accessibility

The BOE must make improvements  regarding accessibility for New Yorkers with disabilities including failsafe mechanisms for private and efficient absentee voting for those with vision and motor-related disabilities, as well as implementing better in-person  accommodations including ensuring functional, ADA compliant,  accessible entrances and voting machines. They should also strengthen early voting by further expanding the number of sites  and allowing voters to cast ballots at any early voting site in  their borough.

Ensure the Right to Vote for Incarcerated New Yorkers

New York State must join Washington DC, Maine and Vermont in ending the disenfranchisement of incarcerated people, and of New Yorkers on parole who currently  require a conditional voting rights pardon from the Governor  in order to vote. The City must expand the voting infrastructure in its jails so that people held in pretrial detention  are able to exercise their right to vote, and improve data collection and coordination between  agencies to ensure all eligible New Yorkers, including those who  are incarcerated, have the right and access to voting. 

Ensure the Right to Vote in Municipal Elections for Immigrant New Yorkers

The City must enact the Our City, Our Vote bill, of which the Public Advocate is a co-prime sponsor, to restore the right of non-citizen New Yorkers who have Green Cards and work authorizations to vote in municipal  elections. There is strong precedent for such action, as these  New Yorkers were previously able to vote in School Board  elections from 1969 to the dissolution of the School Board  system in 2002.

Protect the Rights of Non-Major Political Parties

In a transparent political maneuver, Governor Cuomo  and other state leaders recently increased the vote threshold  needed for a party to maintain automatic ballot status by 160%  and increased the threshold for qualifying for a ballot line via  petitions by 200%. The original thresholds must be restored. It is  also critical that New York maintains fusion voting, which allows  candidates to run on multiple party lines and accumulate their  vote totals.

Re-Structure the Board of Elections

Under the current system, Democratic and  Republican county party leaders, who are unelected and  unaccountable to the public, pick the commissioners who run  local Boards.In order to rebuild  trust in our core democratic process, we need to end the  practice of partisan appointments at the NYC BOE. The Governor  and the State Legislature must take action to restructure the  BOE as an independent, non-partisan body that emphasizes  professionalism above all else.

Institute New Board of Elections Leadership

While system-wide reforms are needed,  as an immediate first step, Executive Director Michael Ryan must  resign. In addition to overseeing numerous operational collapses,  Executive Director Ryan was found by the Conflicts of Interest  Board to have used his position of influence for his own personal  gain at New Yorkers' expense.

The recommendations presented by Public Advocate Williams will require both city and state action, across partisan lines and within nonpartisan institutions. The Office of Public Advocate will continue to work with elected officials and advocacy groups to advance legislative and policy changes while engaging and mobilizing the community toward these goals.

The full platform is available here.

"Voting is a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy and the right of every citizen," said Lurie Daniel-Favors, Esq, Interim Executive Director, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. "Public Advocate Jumaane Williams's platform makes voting easier and more accessible for all New Yorkers. The ten-point plan suggests reforms that will simplify the process and protect and expand voting rights for all, particularly the most vulnerable. CLSJ affirms the platform and urges regulators to codify the suggestions at the local, City, and State levels."

"It's abundantly clear that despite its progressive reputation, New York has lagged behind much of the country in making voting more accessible, elections more efficient, and the process more transparent," said L. Joy Williams, President of the Brooklyn NAACP. "The reforms presented by the Public Advocate are essential to correcting years of anti-democratic policies and systems that have disenfranchised New Yorkers, especially in communities of color."

He made the list, and now he'll be checking it twice. After unveiling the annual Worst Landlord Watchlist last week, spotlighting the 100 worst private landlords in New York City, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams announced today that for the first time, the landlord accountability tool would be supplemented mid-year to demonstrate the regression and/or progression of the landlords featured.

Beginning in mid-2021, the office of the Public Advocate will issue expanded reporting on the actions and inactions of the worst landlords in the city named on the 2020 Worst Landlord Watchlist.

This mid-year assessment will offer an opportunity for New Yorkers to see whether bad actors have allowed conditions to stagnate or further deteriorate, spotlighting any changes in conditions of featured buildings. This will empower tenants to put pressure on bad landlords to more urgently address conditions. It will also present an opportunity for owners operating in good faith to show improvement by addressing conditions and finally responding to tenant needs. Landlords will remain in their existing ranking until the new list is released at the end of each calendar year.

"Accountability is not just an annual occurrence, it's an ongoing effort," said Public Advocate Williams. "Supplementing the yearly watchlist six months later will help tell a more complete story and give tenants the information and tools to demand change from the worst landlords in the city- while in turn enabling landlords to demonstrate some measure of progress if they are committed to improvement and encouraging responsible management."

For the mid-year analysis, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Housing Maintenance Code Violations will be tracked from December 2020 to May 2021 in order to follow developments at these buildings since the original inclusion on the Worst Landlord Watchlist. The report, which will serve as an indicator of a landlord's overall developments on watchlist buildings either improvement or continued issues, will be added to the existing listing.

The Worst Landlord Watchlist catalogues the 100 most egregiously negligent landlords in New York City as determined by widespread, repeated, and unaddressed violations in buildings on the list. Released earlier this week, it is an information-sharing tool intended to allow tenants, public officials, advocates, and other concerned individuals to identify which residential property owners consistently flout the City's laws intended to protect the rights and safety of tenants. This year, the number one worst private landlord was Jason Korn, who also held the spot in 2019. The worst overall landlord was the New York City Housing Authority under the de Blasio administration.

"New York City's school system was the most segregated in the nation before the pandemic, and COVID-19 has only deepened these inequities both in the classroom and remotely-exacerbating the immediate need to bring justice to our admissions systems and create transformational change inside our schools. This is a time not only to adapt, but to advance.

"The measures announced today are welcome, if overdue, efforts to remove barriers and begin to expand access to equitable education. At the same time, educational injustice was a crisis pre-pandemic, with many unjust school screens in middle and high schools perpetuating inequity. We will need to continue advocating and implementing school and community-led reform, such as a weighted lottery that provides greater access for the most marginalized students across our city, to create truly equitable schools."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams issued the following statement after a newly released report from the city Department of Investigation detailed the failures of the NYPD response to the George Floyd protests during the summer of 2020.

"The Department of Investigation's report should come as no surprise to anyone willing to address or even acknowledge the realities of how the NYPD polices protests. I was interviewed as part of this inquiry, as a witness and as the highest-ranking Black elected leader in the city, and what we see in this report echoes what I saw and experienced on the streets - in the demonstrations around the killing of George Floyd, and in the months, years and decades of injustice that fueled them. The administration denied what we witnessed - to this day, they still deny the use of kettling - this report all but confirms it.

"I truly hope that now the administration will finally be willing to recognize the scope and severity of its spectacular failures in this area, and reckon with the structural inadequacies and systemic injustices that have brought us to this moment. We need change, but we cannot simply wait for action from an entity that took five years to fire Daniel Pantaleo. We need sustained civic action and strong civilian oversight to demand better systems and leadership as we work to redefine public safety. These efforts need to come with more rapid and robust accountability for the NYPD.

"This summer, the de Blasio administration's response to a protest movement centered on overpolicing and overaggression was to send more police and to be more aggressive. Throughout that period and since, the Mayor and Commissioner have repeatedly insisted that they haven't seen the video, haven't seen what we all experienced. I'm hopeful that now they've at least seen the report."

As the majority of students continue to receive an all-remote education amid a rise in COVID-19 cases, the New York City Council will vote today on legislation from Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams to track remote learning attendance and assess the effectiveness of the practice for students across the city. It is expected to pass after being voted out of the Committee on Education on Tuesday.

The legislation, Intro 2058-A, would require the Department of Education (DOE) to report on a monthly basis student attendance data during the use of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendance data would be disaggregated by school, school district, grade level, gender, race or ethnicity, individualized education program status, English language learner status, status as a student in temporary housing, and status as a student residing in shelter.

"Monitoring student engagement is an essential way to determine the effectiveness of remote learning- whether fully remote or hybrid, every student will be using remote learning in the coming months," said Public Advocate Williams of the bill. "Tracking student attendance rates allow us to hold the DOE accountable for ensuring our students have the ability to access all of their classes remotely. The money and energy the Administration has spent in rushing to re-open, and then close, in-person classes could have been better spent improving remote learning  and fulfilling our obligation to provide students with safe and equitable education. This bill will help to correct that error and imbalance. I thank Council Member Treyger for his leadership on these issues and Speaker Johnson for making this a priority."

Collecting, categorizing, and making public this attendance information will help to determine whether the Department of Education is equitably and effectively implementing remote learning, particularly for students of greatest need - and hold them accountable for any inadequacies. The information shared will help the DOE tailor their approach to better meet the needs of our students and families and maximize the effectiveness of remote and hybrid learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill will be voted on alongside companion legislation from Council Member Mark Treyger, Intro 2104-A , which would require the DOE to report a breakdown of the number and percentage of students who participated in remote learning and the hybrid mode language access as well as a series of metrics include language accessibility, access to remote learning in juvenile facilities, access to city-issued remote learning devices, and other information.

At a Council hearing held by the Committee on Education at the end of May, the DOE stated that the student engagement rate was about 86%, compared to in-person attendance, which was roughly 93%. That discrepancy was likely due to the fact that many students, especially those in temporary housing, shelters, and foster care, did not receive laptops, tablets, iPads, Chromebooks, or any other devices needed to connect to virtual classroom sessions. Months later, many student engagement issues remain unsolved.

"COVID-19 has impacted every single person in this city, but its impacts have not been evenly felt. Inequities in remote learning mirror inequities in the spread of COVID-19. In order to know how much support is needed for our students and educators, we need data that illustrates the gaps. Additional specific data on remote learning participation is the only effective way to acknowledge the problem and allocate resources where necessary to eliminate gaps of inequity," said Council Member Mark Treyger, Chair of the Committee on Education. "I thank Public Advocate Williams for his partnership and leadership on Intro 2058. I'm proud that this bill is passing today as part of a remote learning transparency package with my Intro 2104."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams spoke at a City Council hearing of the Committee on Criminal Justice today to repeat his call for an end to solitary confinement in New York City and specifically address Intro. 2173, a bill from Council Member Daniel Dromm that would ban the use of solitary confinement in city jails and of which the Public Advocate is a co-prime sponsor. The Public Advocate applauded the ambition of the legislation and the Council for taking it up, particularly in contradistinction to inaction from Mayor de Blasio on his stated goal of ending the practice, but also highlighted several elements of the bill he hoped to amend.

"Instead of waiting on the Mayor to take definitive action in ending solitary confinement, I along with my colleagues in the City Council are confronting this task head on," said the Public Advocate of the bill. "I want to take some time today to raise the concerns that I and many criminal justice advocates have about the bill in hopes that we can continue to work collaboratively to get this done the right way."

He also discussed provisions related to restrictive housing, allotted time out of one's cell, and emergency lock-ins as elements of the bill that he and many activists believe should be amended prior to passage.

"While the bill prohibits the use of solitary confinement, it states that the practice may be used to de-escalate immediate conflict.., I understand that escalatory incidents may arise where separation may be needed to mitigate the situation. However, there is a difference between separation and isolation... [Isolation] serves no purpose and has a severe negative effect on many people." Public Advocate Williams explained, adding "Advocates have also raised to my office that the definition of each term in the bill is either too vague and/or too specific, such as the definition of restrictive housing... A person can remain in restrictive housing with a review every 15 days. This can basically mean solitary confinement, just by a different name."

The Public Advocate's full statement is below and can be downloaded here. TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS  TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE DECEMBER 11, 2020 Good morning, My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank Chair Powers and the members of the Committee on Criminal Justice for holding this very important, and very timely hearing. I especially want to thank Chair Powers and the Speaker for being so vocal in calling on the Board of Correction to change its standards on punitive segregation and end solitary confinement.  Solitary confinement is torture. Whether we call it restrictive housing, punitive segregation, or separation status, at the end of the day it is a form of torture that causes trauma and long-term mental, physical, and social harm. Needless to say, a ban on this harmful practice is long overdue. At the end of June, the Mayor called for an end to solitary confinement and promised to create a working group that would present a report on how to stop this practice - a  report that was supposed to be released this fall. He also expanded the list of pre-existing conditions that would prohibit inmates from being placed in solitary confinement, so that it now includes asthma, seizure, diabetes, heart disease, physical disabilities, among several others. While this was the right move for the City to make, it is coming very late in the game. Why did the Mayor not expand this list of exceptions years ago? If he had, members of our community like Layleen Polanco - a transgender woman who died while in solitary confinement at Rikers due to an epileptic seizure - would still be alive today. I know her sister, Melania Brown, is with us today, and I thank her for joining us yesterday at an event my office had as well. Second, the Administration needs to update us on the status of this working group that the Mayor planned to put together, and when their report will be released. We need to know their findings and recommendations as to when and how this practice will finally end. Instead of waiting on the Mayor to take definitive action in ending solitary confinement, I along with my colleagues in the City Council are confronting this task head on. Intro 2173 would ban the use of solitary confinement in City jails. As a co-prime sponsor of this bill, I applaud Council Member Dromm for leading this effort. I want to take some notice today to raise the concerns that I and many criminal justice advocates have about the bill in hopes that we can continue to work collaboratively to get this done the right way. While the bill prohibits the use of solitary confinement, it states that the practice may be used to de-escalate immediate conflict, and in said situation, the individual cannot be placed in such confinement for longer than four hours. I understand that escalatory incidents may arise where separation may be needed to mitigate the situation. At the same time, there is a difference between separation and isolation. To isolate an individual is to put them in an environment by themselves. This practice does not serve the purported purpose and has a severe negative effect on many people.  Advocates have also raised to my office that the definition of each term in the bill is either too vague and/or too specific, such as the definition of restrictive housing. As written, the bill allows DOC to define restrictive housing without strict guidelines. A person can remain in restrictive housing with a review every 15 days. This can basically mean solitary confinement, just by a different name. Another concern is the phrasing of emergency lock-in. I am concerned the current definition is not strict enough to ensure all other options have been considered, and there is a periodic, hourly review by the chief of the department if it is used.  I also share the concerns held by many advocates, who I know will be testifying later today, about the out-of-cell time policies established in this bill. The bill mandates that all incarcerated individuals have access to at least 14 hours of time outside of their cells every day, except the individuals placed in restrictive housing and those placed in the aforementioned four-hour solitary confinement to de-escalate immediate conflict. Those individuals would have access to at least 10 hours of time outside of their cells. Activists who have advocated to ban solitary confinement are calling for 14 hours out of cell each day across the board. By only allowing certain individuals to be out of cell for 10 hours, this provision leaves 4 additional hours in which someone can be locked in a cell. Therefore, I tend to be in support of our community advocates' call to change the provision in this bill, to ensure all incarcerated individuals have 14 hours out of their cell every day.  I want to make clear that there are differences between isolation and separation, and also be clear that we understand we have the need for consequences for poor behavior, one of those consequences being separation. But isolation is a punishment that causes a significant, harmful physical and psychological impact on many incarcerated individuals. One example of a non-harmful consequence is the Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation unit, also known as CAPS. This program started in 2013 as a new treatment unit developed by the New York City Jail system for individuals with serious mental illness, but I believe this can be expanded to include people with less serious mental illness or no mental illness at all. CAPS was designed to offer a full range of therapeutic activities and interventions for participants, such as individual and group therapy, art therapy, counseling, and community meetings. In fact, this program proved to be more effective in reducing self-harm and injury than restrictive housing. CAPS is just one example of the many programs we need to consider as a consequence for bad behavior, rather than resorting to things like solitary confinement.     The time for New York City to end solitary confinement is now. If the tragic deaths of Layleen Polanco and Kalief Browder tell us anything, it is that this unsafe disciplinary practice is not the answer. This method of punishment does more harm than good, and it does not address the underlying causes of problematic behavior.   I do want to just mention, as my colleague Council Member Dromm did, that this is not only for the people who are housed and incarcerated - it is also for the people who work there, including the men and women of the corrections union. This is the only law enforcement union that is treated in the way that they are, and I believe it is because they are Black and Brown. In the beginning of this pandemic, they were forced to work without PPE and social distancing. I believe that if they were not Black and Brown, primarily women, they would not have been put in this situation. The fact of the matter is Rikers, and many jails across this nation, are set up to continue circles of violence. We want everyone to be safe, including the men and women who go to work, and whose families want them to come home the same way they went to work. We ask them to join us in a conversation where we understand that there has to be separation at times, and there has to be consequences for poor behavior, but not isolation and torture. That we can work together to put in systems that actually change behavior to the type of constructive behavior that we want to see. I thank the Committee on Criminal Justice for giving me this opportunity to speak today.