KINGSTON – The Ulster County Legislature Criminal Justice Reform Task Force has laid out its recommendations to the county legislature.
“I originally convened the UC-CJRTF in October 2019 to examine the long-term impacts of recent bail and discovery reform,” Legislature Chairman Donaldson said. “The perfect storm of the COVID pandemic and George Floyd’s murder forced all of us to question how our criminal justice system can better protect our most vulnerable populations and to examine how to identify, prevent, and respond to discrimination. I applaud the thoughtful, integrated solutions put forward by the task force which simultaneously strengthens law enforcement, improves community policing, and protects the public.”
Legislator Eve Walter, who chaired the task force, said the report “offers a holistic approach to expand criminal justice reforms in Ulster County. It seeks to balance the rights of the accused with the rights of victims, support law enforcement’s capacity to work with people in crisis, reduce the revolving door of criminality, and identify and prevent discrimination in the county’s criminal justice system.”
Key initiatives
- Mandate Restorative Justice training for all Ulster County employees with direct contact with the accused and/or victims of crime
- Create and fund a 24-hour crisis stabilization center and 7–10-day respite recovery homes,
with a minimum of 8 beds
- Establish a Professional Standards Division to independently investigate allegations of officer misconduct in the Office of the Sheriff, and to oversee Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) and Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) training
- Hire a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) manager to develop and grow CIT training infrastructure countywide
- Develop and staff a referral hotline for criminal justice discrimination concerns through the Human Rights Commission
- Initiate a countywide Law Enforcement Community Advisory Board, formed from the membership of each municipal police reform task force, with the mission to support the implementation of police reform measures across the county
- Implement an RFP for proposals to provide re-entry services to Ulster County Jail inmates
- Create and implement a Centralized Arraignment system for Ulster County
