MASS IMPRISONMENT & REENTRY INITIATIVES: Reentry Roundtable
Last Year 26,939 People Came Home
from Prison in New York
What is the NY Reentry Roundtable?
The NY Reentry Roundtable brings together reentry
advocates to discuss strategies to successfully transition the
formerly incarcerated back into family life and their
communities. There are more than 58,000 inmates in New
York State prisons. Once released, these individuals return
in high concentration to a handful of communities,
particularly in the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn, and
Harlem neighborhoods.
The Community Service Society (CSS) formed the
Roundtable in 2005, inviting the formerly incarcerated,
direct service providers, government agency representatives,
and community activists to come together each month to
address the obstacles faced by those released from prison.
Sharing Information, Building Alliances
The Reentry Roundtable represents over 50 stakeholder
organizations, providing a unique forum for networking,
information sharing, and building alliances.
The Roundtable focuses on systemic change at the New
York State level through a legislative agenda, which
advocates for critical reform in:
 Education
 Employment
 Healthcare access
 Family connections
 Child support
 Housing
 Voting rights
Roundtable Perspectives
Recent Roundtable guest speakers include:
Dr. Divine Pryor, Executive Director, Center for
NuLeadership on Urban Solutions at Medgar Evers College
of the City University of New York
Tina Reynolds, Co-Founder and Chair, Women on the Rise
Telling HerStory (WORTH)
Charles J. Hynes, Kings County District Attorney
Winston C. Trumpet, Pastor of The Church With No Walls
Ministry, CEO of Strategic Business Associates LLC,
President of the Hudson County Entrepreneurs Club of
America (for the formerly incarcerated)
Darryl King, former Legislative Aide to NYS Senators
Joseph Galiber and Velmanette Montgomery
Wanda Moore, Director of Reentry, New Jersey Office of
the Attorney General
Edgar Kahn, Founder and Chairman, Time Banks USA
Robert Genn, retired Workforce Specialist, NYS
Department of Labor
Martin F. Horn, Commissioner, NYS Departments of
Correction and Probation
“The Roundtable is an invaluable space for
the NYS reentry communities to exchange
ideas and take action.”
Glenn Martin, VP of Policy and Advocacy, The Fortune
Society
Key Contact
Gabriel Torres-Rivera, Director, Reentry Initiatives
212.614.5306
grivera@cssny.org
CSS established The NY Reentry Roundtable
to convene advocates committed to successful
transition of the formerly incarcerated back
into family life and their communities.
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MASS IMPRISONMENT & REENTRY INITIATIVES: Albany Advocacy Day

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Setting the Agenda for Change  Ending prison gerrymandering to stop census
About Albany Advocacy Day policy of counting prisoners where they are
incarcerated
As an outgrowth of the New York Reentry Roundtable,
CSS established “Albany Advocacy Day” in 2007 to enable  Sealing non-violent, non-sexual misdemeanor
community-based stakeholders to meet with key legislators conviction records after 5 years (assuming no new
in Albany, New York, to advocate on behalf of the convictions)
formerly incarcerated as well as for those who are
incarcerated.  Limiting time that individuals are listed on the
NYS Department of Correction “Inmate Lookup”
More than 100 participants attended each of the 2007,
so as to limit improper use of this website to the
2008 and 2009 Albany Advocacy Days. The Roundtable
detriment of people with conviction histories
Agenda was presented to key legislators as a tool to help
them advocate for critical reentry issues.
 Allowing people who face criminal-records based
job discrimination by government agencies to bring
claims before the New York State Division of
Human Rights or the New York City Human
Rights Commission (people who face employment
discrimination by private companies already have
this right)

 Granting foster care agencies discretion to delay

filing termination of parental rights papers when a
parent is incarcerated or in a residential drug
treatment program in order to help families work
toward unification

 Creating a commission to study post-secondary

education in prison, including restoration of TAP
On the Agenda in 2010: grant eligibility and expanding access to programs
Removing Barriers, Rebuilding Lives
 Prohibiting employers from making any inquiry
The Albany Advocacy Day Agenda for May 4, 2010 about an applicant’s conviction history until a
includes 13 bills to amend laws that currently create conditional job offer is made
unnecessary barriers for the formerly incarcerated.
Important topics covered by these bills include:  Standardizing references to Certificates of Relief
from Disabilities and Certificates of Good Conduct
in all occupational licensing laws, so that either
Extending the right to vote to individuals on
certificate acts to lift automatic bars to licensure
parole.

 Allowing judges to use discretion in setting or  Cleaning up rap sheets used for non-criminal
modifying child support obligations of incarcerated justice purposes by prohibiting NYS DCJS from
non-custodial parents. including entries about arrests/cases with no
activity for three or more years
 Granting merit time release eligibility to survivors
of domestic violence whose convictions were We also support initiatives to revise criteria and
related to their experiences of domestic violence. guidance to the Parole Board to give clearer focus to
fostering reentry and reintegration rather than to
continuing punishment.

CSS established The NY Reentry Roundtable

to convene advocates committed to successful
transition of the formerly incarcerated back
into family life and their communities.