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NYS BREATHE ACT

Black Freedom Project of NY has adopted a state-level platform and legislative campaign inspired by M4BL’s Federal Breathe Act. The BREATHE Act calls for a “time-bound plan” to close all federal prisons and immigration detention centers. It would also abolish ICE and the Drug Enforcement Administration, ban police departments from using surveillance and military-grade weapons, and reallocate funds from policing and incarceration to social-welfare, health-care, education, and environmental programs. This visionary bill framework divests our taxpayer dollars from brutal and discriminatory policing and invests in a new vision of public safety—a vision that answers the call to defund the police and allows all communities to finally BREATHE free.

The BREATHE Act framework seeks to:

  1. Divest Federal Resources from policing and incarceration & ending federal criminal-legal system harms, including the 1994 Crime Bill and reparations for the War on Drugs,
  2. Invest in new approaches to community safety utilizing funding incentives, 
  3. Allocate new money to build healthy, sustainable & equitable communities for all people and, 
  4. Hold officials accountable & enhance self-determination of Black communities.