Draft:Correctional Association of New York

• Comment: See WP:COI. External links should also be removed or converted to inline citations where appropriate. Greenman (talk) 13:09, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

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The Correctional Association of New York (CANY) was founded in 1844 and provides independent oversight and monitoring to correctional facilities in New York. They are one of only three non-profit organizations (the other two being John Howard Association of Illinois (JHA)and Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS)) in the United States to conduct official oversight of state prisons. CANY promotes criminal justice transparency by visiting prisons, monitoring conditions, issuing reports, and disseminating this information to policymakers, advocacy organizations, and the public.  They seek to protect and advance the civil and human rights of those experiencing incarceration, address systemic abuses, and decrease the use of carceral interventions overall.

Ilan K. Reich noted in A Citizen Crusade for Prison Reform, “The Correctional Association’s strategy was, and continues to be, based on the determination that the more constituencies we involve in the issue, the more ways we spotlight the problem, and the more tactics we use to promote practical reforms, the greater chance we have for attaining the urgently needed improvements” (71).

History

The organization was founded in 1844 by John W. Edmonds, the President of the Board of Inspectors at Sing Sing Correctional Facility to mobilize civilians concerned with prison conditions in New York. In 1846, CANY was deputized by the New York State Legislature to provide official oversight and monitoring, reporting their findings back to the legislature and the public. While the organization has faced numerous challenges to this authority throughout history, they maintain the same responsibilities to this day.

In the mid-to-late 1800s, CANY led various successful campaigns such as ending corporal punishment and creating separate facilities for youth. On the federal level, CANY lobbied for policy to decrease sentence time for good behavior and created the National Prison Association (now the American Correctional Association). They also introduced the International Prison Commission in 1872, managed by the United Nations.

Stepping into the 1900s, CANY’s advocacy helped increased access in state correctional facilities to mental health care, education, substance use treatment, and clean and safe environments. Some other notable highlights across the decade include:

• The creation of a commission to oversee structural and sanitation standards in prisons due in part to annual CANY reports from the early 1900s exposing subpar cleanliness and inhumane, “medieval” architecture
• Consolidation of the state prisons into one department of corrections in the 1920s after many years of advocacy by CANY
• Continuous advocacy for the limitation, and eventual abolishment, of the death penalty, as well as shifting policy away from the criminalization of “morality” areas like alcoholism, prostitution, abortion, and homosexuality
• Leading the bail reform movement in the 1980s through research showing that low-income individuals who could not pay bail were given harsher sentences
• Addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis in prisons via increasing access to information, testing, and treatment. This helped decrease the number of people infected in facilities by 77.5% over the past 40 years
• Critiquing the sentencing minimums and harsh drug laws of the late 1900s, contributing to an ongoing conversation about mass incarceration in New York state prisons

In the past 25 years, CANY has played a key role in limiting the use of solitary confinement through advocacy for the passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act, diverting 16 and 17-year-olds from adult prisons by supporting Raise the Age (RTA), and drafting the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) which passed in 2018 to support folx convicted of a crime that was impacted by “sexual, psychological or physical abuse” seeking to appeal their sentencing. They continue their oversight and monitoring work to this day.

Organizational activities

The Correctional Association of New York operates many different oversight activities within its purview. To coordinate efforts across levels of intervention, the organization engages in everything from direct contact with individuals who are incarcerated to state policy advocacy.

Visiting and monitoring

With the passage of a state law that consolidated CANY’s power in 2021, the organization was tasked with visiting each of the state’s 44 prisons at least once every 5 years to monitor conditions. On these visits, CANY staff interviews administrative, medical, program, and security staff, as well as individuals who are incarcerated. They also tour facilities, taking note of issues in material conditions.  

Afterwards, they write reports reflecting on the strengths and shortcomings of each facility, issuing recommendations to the Department of Correction and Community Supervision (DOCCS). These reports are then published publicly alongside a response from DOCCS.

Correspondence

CANY maintains correspondence with individuals who are incarcerated, loved ones, and advocates via letters, emails, and the organization’s hotline. Through these avenues, CANY collects qualitative information on issues such as abuse and assault, medical negligence, food quality, heating and cooling, the use of solitary confinement, and more. CANY offers referrals to other organizations for direct intervention and resources such as their Action Guides to those who reach out.

Data collection and analysis

CANY collects qualitative data through interviews conducted on prison visits, the dissemination of surveys, and tracking the identification of issues via correspondence. They also collect and analyze a variety of qualitative and quantitative administrative data from DOCCS. This data is synthesized on their website’s Data Dashboard to ensure easy access to system-wide and facility specific information on things like deaths in custody, incident reports, and demographics of those in custody.  

Policy advocacy

To bridge all aspects of their work together and bring about systemic change, CANY advocates for legislative reforms to DOCCS facilities through discussions with other advocacy groups and lawmakers. They utilize all data and themes collected through their oversight activities to inform their advocacy. CANY is mandated by state law to promulgate their reports and issue recommendations to enact policy changes with DOCCS directly or through the passage of state law. CANY publishes these recommendations and an annual policy agenda on their website to include the public in their legislative priorities.  

Further reading

• Historical Archives of CANY's Work
• Official website