Our Mission
The Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform seeks to help the City of New York move towards closing the jail complex on Rikers Island, improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, reduce the use of unnecessary incarceration, and encourage the development of more humane, state-of-the-art, borough-based jail facilities.
In April 2017, the Commission issued A More Just New York City, a groundbreaking evidence-based set of recommendations for improving New York City’s criminal justice system, including closing the dysfunctional jail complex on Rikers Island, significantly reducing the number of people in jail, shifting to a modern system of smaller facilities located near the borough criminal courts, and repurposing the island as a resource for the future of all New Yorkers.
Commission Members
The Commission is chaired by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and comprised of two dozen civic leaders, experts, and advocates from a variety of backgrounds, including law enforcement, academia, the judiciary, social services, advocacy groups, business, and those who have spent time behind bars.
Judge Jonathan Lippman (Chair)
Former Chief Judge of the State of New York and Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and Of Counsel at Latham & Watkins LLP
Richard M. Aborn
President of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City
Greg Berman
Senior Fellow and former Director of the Center of Court Innovation
Juan Cartagena
President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Hon. Matthew J. D’Emic
Presiding Judge of the Brooklyn Mental Health Court and Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters, Brooklyn Supreme Court
Mylan L. Denerstein
Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and former Counsel to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo
Robert B. Fiske, Jr.
Senior Counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
MaryAnne Gilmartin
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of L&L MAG
Colvin W. Grannum
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp
Dr. Michael P. Jacobson
Executive Director of the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction
Seymour W. James, Jr.
Partner, Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP and former Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society of New York
Hon. Judy Harris Kluger
Executive Director of Sanctuary For Families
Peter Madonia
Former Chief Operating Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation and former Chief of Staff to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Julio Medina
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Exodus Transitional Community, Inc.
Ana L. Oliveira
President and Chief Executive Officer of The New York Women’s Foundation
Rocco A. Pozzi
Probation Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Probation and former Commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Correction
Laurie Robinson
Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University and former Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs
Stanley Richards
Vice-Chair of the New York City Board of Corrections and Senior Vice President at The Fortune Society, Inc.
Hon. Jeanette Ruiz
Administrative Judge of the New York Family Court
Peter G. Samuels
Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP
Herbert Sturz
Board Chair of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods
Dr. Alethea Taylor
Former President and Executive Director, Greenhope Services for Women, Inc.
Jeremy Travis
Vice President of Criminal Justice at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Former President of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former Director of the National Institute of Justice
Nicholas Turner
President and Director of the Vera Institute for Justice
Darren Walker
President of the Ford Foundation
Kenneth H. Zimmerman
Distinguished Fellow of the Furman Center at NYU Law School and the former Director of U.S. Programs of the Open Society Foundations
Staff
Tyler Nims is Executive Director of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. Before joining the Commission, he was a litigator at Latham & Watkins LLP, served as a law clerk to US District Judge Raymond J. Dearie in the Eastern District of New York and Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo of the South African Constitutional Court, and practiced civil rights litigation at the MacArthur Justice Center in Chicago.
Zachary Katznelson is Policy Director of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. He has almost 20 years' experience investigating and achieving change in Rikers and jails and prisons throughout the United States. In addition, he has represented people on death row with the Equal Justice Initiative, men in Guantanamo Bay with the British charity Reprieve, and women convicted of killing their abusers with the California Habeas Project. He co-founded Congregation Beth Elohim's (Brooklyn, New York) racial justice team, using faith-based organizing to reform the criminal legal system. He lives in New York with his wife Isabel Burton and their three young sons.
The Commission works closely with partners including Latham & Watkins LLP, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance, the Center for Court Innovation, Global Strategy Group, and Vera Institute of Justice.