The legislature has made dramatic reforms to our criminal justice system over the past several years—limiting monetary bail, increasing the discovery obligations of prosecutors, reducing incarceration for "technical" parole violations and establishing a process to automatically apply a conditional seal on past criminal convictions. But there are also more modest, practical changes to our criminal laws which would make them far more effective and fair.

I chair the New York State Office of Court Administration's Criminal Law and Procedure Advisory Committee. We are a group of judges, retired judges, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors and a law professor who continuously work to propose such statutory improvements to our Chief Judge and Chief Administrative Judge. Upon their approval, the proposals are submitted to the Legislature. They are non-political. Most of our proposals are approved unanimously by the Committee. In 2025, we will again ask the Legislature to consider them.