Requires the department of criminal justice services to develop, issue, and publish "race-blind charging" guidelines for a process whereby all prosecution agencies that prosecute criminal violations of the law as felonies or misdemeanors, shall implement a process by which an initial review of a case for potential charging is performed based on information, including police reports and criminal histories from the department of justice, from which direct means of identifying the race of the suspect, victim, or witness have been removed.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
10072
I N A S S E M B L Y
January 30, 2026
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WRIGHT -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to "race-blind charging"
guidelines for prosecution agencies
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Legislative Intent. In recent years, the increasing avail-
ability of data regarding criminal justice has raised legitimate ques-
tions regarding racial disparities in how cases are investigated,
charged, and prosecuted. Studies suggest that unknowing or "unconscious"
bias may affect many decisions within the criminal justice system,
despite what may be the best intentions of the actors involved. One
method suggested to address this bias is to create institutional proce-
dures to prevent bias from influencing important decisions. To increase
community confidence in the charging process, and to reduce the poten-
tial for unconscious bias, some district attorney offices employ a meth-
od whereby reports received from the police are stripped of all data
from which the race of the suspect may be determined so that at least
the initial charging assessment of the case is done race-blind. In Cali-
fornia through a partnership with the Stanford Computational Policy Lab
in 2021 created and implemented a race-blind charging system built into
its case management system for most cases. This legislation ensures New
York does the same and takes the necessary steps to address the bias.
§ 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 296-e to
read as follows:
§ 296-E. RACE-BLIND CHARGING. 1. (A) BEGINNING JANUARY FIRST, TWO
THOUSAND TWENTY-SEVEN, THE DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES SHALL
DEVELOP, ISSUE, AND PUBLISH "RACE-BLIND CHARGING" GUIDELINES FOR A PROC-
ESS WHEREBY ALL PROSECUTION AGENCIES, FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION
DEFINED AS AGENCIES, OR BRANCHES OF AGENCIES, THAT PROSECUTE CRIMINAL
VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW AS FELONIES OR MISDEMEANORS, SHALL IMPLEMENT A
PROCESS BY WHICH AN INITIAL REVIEW OF A CASE FOR POTENTIAL CHARGING IS
PERFORMED BASED ON INFORMATION, INCLUDING POLICE REPORTS AND CRIMINAL
HISTORIES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, FROM WHICH DIRECT MEANS OF
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
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