Our Wins

Since CoRA’s creation in 2005, we have successfully advocated for changes to law and policy to support the economic stability of New Yorkers impacted by the criminal legal system. Below is a non-exhaustive list of CoRA achievements.

  • In 2025:

    • In January, CoRA wrote to the Chief Administrative Judge of the NYS Unified Court System, urging the issuance of a directive encouraging criminal court judges to grant Certificates of Relief from Disabilities (CRDs) at sentencing. This would help eligible people overcome legal barriers to employment and housing and support their full participation in society. (Read the letter here.)

    • In June and July, CoRA conducted a presentation on Certificates of Relief from Disabilities at the New York State Judicial Institute’s 2025 Judicial Summer Seminars. 

  • In 2024:

    • CoRA played a leading role in passing the Maintaining Criminal Record Confidentiality Act (S940/A6637), a major victory for fair hiring, housing, and education access. Signed into law by Governor Hochul on November 22, 2024, this legislation bars employers, landlords, and schools from forcing applicants to obtain and submit self-requested RAP sheets  from the Division of Criminal Justice Services—closing a loophole that enabled discrimination and undermined criminal record sealing and Fair Chance protections. This win strengthens privacy rights and ensures that New Yorkers impacted by the criminal legal system are not unfairly excluded from opportunities. (Read our press release here.)

    • CoRA provided written and oral testimony on proposed amendments to the NYC Commission on Human Rights (NYCCHR) rules governing employment discrimination based on criminal history. (Read our testimony here.)

    • CoRA successfully advocated for fairer hiring practices at NYC Parks, leading to key policy changes that reduce barriers for job applicants with conviction records. After submitting recommendations and meeting with Parks officials, the agency agreed to three major reforms: (1) eliminating the requirement that applicants provide Certificates of Disposition, (2) allowing applicants with conditional job offers to report criminal history to the best of their recollection, and (3) ensuring that no background check questions are asked before a conditional offer, as required by law. 

    • CoRA successfully advocated with the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) and NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to bring hiring practices in DSNY’s Job Training Participant (JTP) program into compliance with the Fair Chance Act. After CoRA’s advocacy, HRA and DSNY agreed to cease automatically disqualifying applicants with pending criminal records, and to cease discussing criminal records in their job posting.  

For decades, CoRA has drafted and advocated for various New York State and New York City bills that have been enacted into law. For example, in 2019, a package of reentry bills supported by CoRA was enacted as part of the New York state budget. This package included, among other things, bills prohibiting employment discrimination based on open adjournments in contemplation of dismissal, a repeal of mandatory driver’s license suspensions for people with certain drug-related convictions, and a repeal of automatic conviction-based disqualifications for various licenses and jobs. In addition, in 2010, eight bills drafted or supported by CoRA were passed and signed into law.