WHO: Volunteers involved with the Correctional Association’s Drop the Rock Campaign including young people, individuals who have been in prison, families and faith leaders.

WHAT: The Drop the Rock Campaign is organizing Empowerment Day to build political power in neighborhoods that are directly affected by NY’s imprisonment policies. Through petitioning and voter registration, volunteers will seek to hold elected officials accountable to low-income communities of color.

WHERE: Neighborhoods include:

• South Bronx
• Washington Heights
• Jamaica
• Jackson Heights
• Harlem
• Coop City
• Lower East Side
• Park Slope
• Crown Heights
• Fulton Mall, Brooklyn
• Hudson, NY
• Albany, NY

WHY: New York is facing a budget deficit of over $10 billion over the next two years. Governor Paterson has proposed severe reductions to services like education and healthcare. Meanwhile, the state is wasting millions of dollars on failed incarceration policies and empty prison beds. In fact, in the last 10 years New York’s prison population has declined by 13,000 people, and the crime rate has dropped by over 28%. To save money, further reduce crime, and build healthy communities, state leaders should enact constructive criminal justice reforms including the expansion of work release, the full repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and the closure of underutilized prisons.

“We look to the governor and the legislature to exercise leadership aimed at reducing our prison population and saving the state money, while investing in approaches that cut recidivism rates and restore the well-being of our people and communities” says Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of NY.

“Crime has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years, and the prison population has declined by 13,000 people,” states Drop the Rock Campaign Coordinator Caitlin Dunklee. “Empowerment Day has taken root across the state in communities which have been most negatively affected by the state’s imprisonment policies. Leaders in these areas agree that NY can no longer base the economies of rural districts on the warehousing of low-income people of color.”