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Photo of 3057 Coney Island Avenue.
Eric Adams, the Erdogan Family, and a Brooklyn Medical Fraud Hotspot

One Brighton Beach property connects political donations, Medicaid scams, and a Turkish charity

Will Bredderman   ·   November 21, 2024
A photo illustration showing Governor Kathy Hochul's face and migrants walking down a NYC street.
Will Hochul Fight Trump’s Plan for ‘Mass Deportations’?

Trump is poised to ramp up deportation activity in northern states like New York, which has few statewide policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Chris Gelardi   ·   November 12, 2024
In the center of the image is a police badge with department names scratched out to represent O'Connell's history of moving from one department to the next. The badge is overlaid on a collage of O'Connell's redacted disciplinary records.
Rehired: How New York’s Problem Cops Can Bounce Between Jobs

The state doesn’t publicize officer employment histories, making it impossible to track so-called wandering officers.

Sammy Sussman and Chris Gelardi   ·   October 31, 2024
Can Police Departments Be Trusted to Release Their Own Misconduct Records? Apparently Not.

The police chief in Orange County’s Village of Chester claimed his department had no misconduct records. He was hiding an investigation into his own alleged malfeasance.

Sammy Sussman   ·   October 30, 2024
Naps, Pink Eye, a Bee Sting: How a Hochul Appointee Got Himself Kicked Off the Parole Board

Brandon Stradford lasted two months on New York state’s Board of Parole. He continued collecting a paycheck for another seven.

Chris Gelardi   ·   October 28, 2024
Prison Confiscates Incarcerated Journalist’s Typewriter After She Writes for New York Focus

A week after incarcerated journalist Sara Kielly published an article criticizing the prison system for its solitary confinement practices, officers ransacked her cell.

Chris Gelardi   ·   October 4, 2024
How New York’s Maximum-Security Women’s Prison Has Failed to HALT Solitary Confinement

A landmark reform law was meant to overhaul carceral punishment in New York. Getting prisons to follow it has been an uphill battle.

Sara G. Kielly   ·   September 25, 2024
‘It’s a Sham’: A Former Parole Commissioner Dissects New York’s Stubborn System

Carol Shapiro spent two years trying to reform the state Board of Parole. Little has changed.

Chris Gelardi   ·   September 20, 2024
Three empty seats inside of a wood-paneled hearing room.
Kathy Hochul’s Parole Board Blunders

The governor promised to fill the chronically understaffed Board of Parole. Nearly half of her nominations have ended in disaster.

Chris Gelardi   ·   September 10, 2024
An overhead view of Great Meadow Correctional Facility
New York to Close One of Its Most Notorious Prisons

Great Meadow and Sullivan prisons are slated to shut down in November. The state could close up to three more over the next year.

Chris Gelardi   ·   July 18, 2024
A $100 bill behind a transparent photo of an EKG reading.
Deaths Abound in New York’s Jail Infirmaries. So Do Profits.

More counties are turning to private corporations to run medical care in jails. The companies have deadly track records.

Laura Robertson   ·   July 18, 2024
Syracuse Officer With History of Abuse and Dishonesty Leads Police Union

Joseph Moran has long faced accusations of dishonesty — even from a fellow officer — records show.

Nathan Porceng   ·   June 18, 2024
A sign outside of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.
Trans Man Forced to Undergo Prison Genital Exams Wins $275,000 Settlement

He hopes the settlement will lead to reforms in New York prisons, where three-quarters of trans people say corrections officers have inappropriately touched or sexually assaulted them.

Chris Gelardi   ·   June 17, 2024
NYCLU Sues to Overturn Landmark Sex Offender Law

Advocates charge that New York’s restrictions for sex offense registrants are “vague, expansive, and unnecessary.” On Tuesday, they filed a federal lawsuit to strike them down.

Chris Gelardi and Sam Mellins   ·   May 28, 2024
Three men in suits, including former acting prison commissioner Anthony Annucci and acting prison commissioner Daniel Martuscello III, stand at a memorial ceremony in Albany.
Hochul Quietly Nominates a Permanent Prison Chief

The Senate will consider Daniel Martuscello III’s bid to run New York’s prison and parole agency. His supporters point to his decades of experience. His opponents say that’s the problem.

Chris Gelardi   ·   May 22, 2024
Joe Biden talking with reporters in 1994
After Weinstein Decision, Democrats Push Sexual Assault Measure Biden and Schumer Once Fought

After New York’s top court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s conviction, state lawmakers want to let prosecutors bring evidence from past uncharged sexual assaults.

Julia Rock   ·   May 18, 2024
DCPI chief Tarik Sheppard displays a bike lock retrieved from Columbia University on MSNBC's Morning Joe on May 1, 2024.
Meet the Cops Running the NYPD’s 86-Member Public Relations Team

The police department’s PR team has more than doubled in size in the past two years. Some of its recent hires have histories of dishonesty and misconduct.

Chris Gelardi   ·   May 14, 2024
Fordham University Foreshadows a Campus Culture of Growing Repression

The small Catholic university banned Students for Justice in Palestine in 2016. Amid protests and crackdowns, the move has become increasingly popular.

Sophie Hurwitz   ·   May 9, 2024
hands holding yellow camera in a plastic trash bag, press badge visible
NYPD Tackled and Arrested Journalists Covering Latest Encampment Sweep

The journalists said the arrests interfered with their ability to document the police raid at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Meghnad Bose and Uzma Afreen   ·   May 8, 2024
NYPD officers in front of the City College gates. Protesters drop a Palestinian flag behind them.
On the Ground at the NYPD Raid on the City College Gaza Solidarity Encampment

New York Focus was on the scene as cops shoved, kettled, and chased students at City College, the second campus where the NYPD razed a Gaza solidarity encampment Tuesday.

Chris Gelardi   ·   May 2, 2024
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