Second Look Symposium Features NYS Chief Judge, Focuses on Extreme Sentences 

The Hon. Judge Rowan Wilson, Chief Judge of the State of New York and the New York Court of Appeals, will join a group of state lawmakers and sentence reform advocates at a Brooklyn Law School symposium to be held in the Forchelli Conference Center on May 8 from 12-2 p.m. addressing the Second Look Act.   

The Second Look Act, pending in New York State, would give those serving prison terms of 10 years or longer the ability to ask judges to re-evaluate their sentences. The idea behind the legislation is to give anyone who committed a crime years ago an opportunity to demonstrate that the sentence no longer serves a purpose, such as when the individual no longer poses a danger and could make positive contributions to the community if released.  

Joining Judge Wilson at the symposium will be the bill’s sponsors, State Senator Julia Salazar and State Assembly Member Latrice Walker, both representing Brooklyn, and two Communities Not Cages (CNC) members who have loved ones serving indeterminate life sentences in prison.  

The event is sponsored by CNC and Brooklyn Law School's Center for Criminal Justice (CCJ) and will be moderated by Professor Kate Mogulescu, who is one of the co-directors of CCJ.   

A National Re-Examination of Mass Incarceration 

New York, like a number of other states across the country, is exploring new approaches to justice that seek to fix or prevent the harms caused by mass incarceration, Mogulescu said. The bill’s language states that it “seeks to address the harms caused by New York's history of imposing overly harsh sentences, including those required by mandatory minimums, by allowing judges to utilize their independent discretion in the interest of justice to reduce an individual's sentence notwithstanding any required minimum sentence.”  The bill is currently in committee.   

"As it stands now, people are sentenced to extreme, long sentences and then decades down the road they have to contend with the parole board," Mogulescu said. "While incarcerated, they may have moved through their education, conquered their mental health issues, grown out of adolescence, and taken true accountability for what they’ve done. The opportunity to demonstrate that to a court is transformative. The Center is deeply committed to the notion that we don’t get to simply label and discard people."  

The Second Look Act has garnered extensive support from judges, Mogulescu said, including Judge Wilson (who served as the Law School’s Commencement Speaker in 2025). In his annual address at the Court of Appeals in Albany in February, Wilson urged the State Legislature to pass the bill. "Put simply, our criminal justice system isn’t working. Maybe it hasn’t ever worked," Judge Wilson said in the address, according to a New York Times report. "Prolonged incarceration is very expensive, and it does not make us safer."  

The legislation also has support from a variety of officials who work within law enforcement, including the former prison commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the former New York City commissioner of corrections and probation. The American Bar Association issued a resolution favoring second look resentencing in 2022. A Vera Institute of Justice poll showed that it has the support of 68 percent of New Yorkers.   

Other states nationwide have passed similar legislation to the Second Look Act to address mass incarceration, Mogulescu noted. While New York State reformed its drug sentencing laws years ago, this legislation would apply to other crimes that carry long sentences. Some, such as burglaries, are classified as violent felonies, even though there is no violence involved. In other cases, people who were prosecuted when they are teenagers are serving indeterminate life sentences, such as 25 years to life or more, which often leads to many decades of imprisonment.   

"We want to highlight the need for action," Mogulescu said.   

 The event is open to the public. Register here.