Image Credit: CityLaw
Jeremy Travis, Executive Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures and Former President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice spoke at this morning’s 160th CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School. Travis was introduced by Professor Ross Sandler, Director of the Center for New York City Law, with remarks by Dean Anthony W. Crowell. Travis spoke on “Crime and Justice Trends: the New York City story 1981-2018.”
Travis’s speech was a comparative analysis of New York City crime statistics from the 1980s to 2018 that he called the “Five New York Realities”: 1)Lower Crime Rates, 2) Lower Enforcement Rates, 3) Lower Incarceration and Supervision Rates, 4) The Consequences of Drug Enforcement, and 5) Persistent Racial Disparities.
The data highlighted that largely there has been sharp declines in the number of arrests, pretrial admissions, prison sentence and probation rates, and arrests for drug charges over the years. However, this comes after what Travis called the “era of punitive excess”, excessive practices and policies of responding to the drug epidemic of the 1980s which led to such high numbers of arrests, sentences and overall enforcement in the first place. Going forward, Travis says, we must do better in using the criminal justice system to respond to crime, which requires thinking differently about criminal justice reform including reducing excessive sentences, adopting mechanisms for compassionate release, and creating trust between communities and the police, among many others.
To view Travis’ presentation packet on “Trends in Crime and Justice” , click here. To view the corresponding slides on crime trends, click here.
To watch the livestream, click here.
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