Long Island Deserves Better Than ‘Tough on Crime’ Politics

Read: It Could Have Been Me

In honor of Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, I’m sharing a personal reflection on my own mental health journey—and how it shaped my path into the criminal legal system.

But let me be clear: I’m also sharing this as a direct response to the wave of “tough on crime” rhetoric making a comeback in Long Island DA offices.

These policies do not make communities safer.
They retraumatize survivors.
They ignore what the data shows.
And they fracture the mental health of everyone in the system—defendants, victims, attorneys, families.

I’ve seen it from the inside. I’ve lived it in my body.

We need prosecutors who understand that accountability and compassion are not opposites. We need systems that acknowledge the trauma that brings people into courtrooms—and the trauma that bad policy creates once they’re there.

I hope my story sheds light on what’s really at stake.
Reform isn’t radical. It’s human.