FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 25, 2019
Contact: Melissa Mansfield,mmansfield@skdknick.com,
NEW YORKERS UNITED FOR JUSTICE LAUNCHES A SEVEN-FIGURE PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN TO DISPEL MISINFORMATION AND PROMOTE VALUES, BENEFITS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
Phase One is a Powerful $1.25 Million Television, Direct Mail, Digital Media Visibility Push
(New York, NY) – New Yorkers United for Justice (NYUJ) today announced the launch of a robust seven-figure public education campaign to educate New Yorkers on the positive impact of the state’s historic criminal justice reforms that will enhance public safety and fairness across the state. The latest phase is a $1.25 million push by fourteen diverse organizations that signals the coalition’s deep, long-term commitment to advancing long-overdue reforms, an investment now in excess of $2 million since its formation earlier this year.
The first of two television spots launching this fall can be viewed here: A Safe, Fair New York.
The campaign includes direct mail and digital advertising that will accompany the television advertisements and highlights the voices of law enforcement, civil rights, faith, business, and bipartisan leaders and everyday New Yorkers whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system. The effort aims to ensure New Yorkers are well-informed and able to separate the facts from the fear-mongering fiction that has been propagated by opponents of reasonable reform.
“Opponents are deliberately misleading the public with fear. Fortunately, we have the truth on our side. Our campaign will dispel their misinformation and educate New Yorkers about why and how criminal justice reform makes New York a safer and fairer place to live,” said NYUJ Chief Strategist Khalil A. Cumberbatch. “Those who seek to roll back recent reforms are really defending the indefensible – a dysfunctional system that denies people due process, jails them for low-level crimes even before they’ve had their day in court, and treats the rich better than the poor, all to the detriment of public safety and basic decency. Change is long overdue.”
In a HarrisX poll released by NYUJ earlier this year, New Yorkers across the state—including the suburbs, cities and rural areas—and across all ideologies broadly supported reforms, including the right to a speedy trial; open, fair discovery laws; and a bail system that doesn’t incarcerate New Yorkers simply because they are unable to afford cash bail.
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