Aborn for Manhattan DA

Advocates who have fought for decades for criminal justice reform rightly see this moment as one when the stars are aligned for change. At the state level, the fiscal crisis has governors and legislators looking for alternatives to spending $50 billion a year on incarceration. At the federal level, new leadership in the Justice Department is aiming for a smarter approach to public safety, while leaders like Senator Jim Webb have been pushing for a national reconsideration of issues like drug treatment, effective parole policy, education for inmates and re-entry programs.

This year New York State took a major step in the right direction by reforming its draconian and counterproductive Rockefeller drug laws. Gone are the mandatory-minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders, giving judges wider discretion in sentencing and the possibility of treatment instead of lengthy incarceration. In New York City, where Robert Morgenthau is stepping down as Manhattan district attorney after thirty-four years, the hard-fought race to determine his successor in this high-profile post is providing a unique opportunity for a progressive re-envisioning of our criminal justice system, not only in the city but on a national scale.

Richard Aborn is the candidate who most passionately and boldly describes such an alternative future. He is also the candidate with the clearest record of lifelong and unwavering opposition to the death penalty and strong advocacy of Rockefeller drug-law reform.

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