[ THEME MUSIC ] Welcome to this week's edition of "New York Now."

I'm Shantel Destra.

Congestion pricing is officially back for New York City.

This week, Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled a new plan for the program that would implement tolls for cars entering the city from downtown.

As you may recall, Hochul pulled the plug on the controversial program back in June.

At the time, saying that it would be too costly for New Yorkers.

The revised program will now cost drivers $9 to enter the city which is lower than the original $15 price.

From day one, I have made affordability for New York families a top priority.

I always have and I always will fight to put more money in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers.

The Governor said that the reduced toll price will still provide funding for transit initiatives and help with the ongoing financial issues of the MTA.

The toll program is set to go into effect in January and we'll bring you updates on any changes to those plans right here on the show.

Now turning to another topic.

Over the last few years, the state inspector general's office has focused largely on the work of prisons across the state.

A few months ago, the office released a comprehensive report outlining the department of corrections and community supervision's inability to completely comply with the HALT ACT because of outdated record keeping practices.

To learn more about that program and the work of the office, we sat down with the inspector general, Lucy Lang.

[ THEME MUSIC ] Thank you so much for joining us today, inspector general.

Thank you for having me Of course.

Your office is tasked with keeping government in check and investigating things like corruption, fraud and conflicts of interest and I know that's a pretty tall order, but I wanted to understand in the past three years that you've been leading the office, what has surprised you most about that work?

Well, Shantel, the-- in a recent Sienna poll reflected that two-thirds of Americans believe that democracy's under threat.

So it has never been more important that agencies like ours who are tasked with being a watch dog for government are doing our jobs effectively and efficiently and in a non-partisan way.

So amongst the things I have been surprised by, although I shouldn't, is the incredible work that so many New York State employees are doing on the ground in the many executive agencies across the state.

And I have seen it from the parks way up in the north country out to the tip of Long Island.

We have seen it in so many of the agencies under our jurisdiction that the vast majority of folks who are-- who work for New York State are putting tax payer dollars to good work on behalf of New Yorkers.

And a few months ago, your office released a report which, you know, unpacked how the department of corrections and community supervision needed to modernize their record keeping capabilities to comply with the Holt act, and we know the HALT ACT is aimed at limiting the use of solitary confinement in state prisons.

So I wanted to understand what is the correlation between record keeping and limiting the use of solitary confinement?

Modernizing technology should be top of mind for folks in government at every level.

That's true for us at the inspector general's office as well, and we have really invested in making sure that we are developing a tech-forward approach to oversight.

In terms of the analysis we did of the New York state law that went into effect just over two years ago, that significantly restricts the use of solitary confinement in New York's prisons, we were doing an assessment of whether or not the department of corrections was complying with those limitations and what we found was that in many ways, they were working towards compliance, but that unfortunately it was very difficult to assess the full measure of their compliance because so much of the department corrections record keeping is still done with pen and paper.

So I have been in every prison in New York state.

I have signed in pen and ink into these log books and unfortunately, that means that when we are trying to assess whether or not the agency is complying, we are looking at pen and ink log books, and that can be very difficult across 44 facilities.

So amongst our recommendations, we're having a real investment in 21st century technology for tracking the movement of incarcerated folks and, that will better able oversight.

And what were you hearing from officials with the department about why it's been taking them, you know, so long to modernize their process?

It seems intuitive to have it, you know, be modern and not solely based on pen and paper?

I can say from my own perspective in overseeing an agency that a transition to digital practice is a challenging one, and it's something that many state agencies are working towards, but of course, there is a tremendous amount of infrastructure and resource investment that's required to get that done.

And what were some of the responses that you got on that report from New Yorkers?

You know, Shantel, I spent many years teaching College in New York State's prisons and have worked alongside many directly impacted New Yorkers over the years, but something that really struck me after we issued our report was that a formerly incarcerated student of mine reviewed the report and he had spent time in solitary confinement in New York State's prisons and he said to me, you know, I finally feel seen, that someone is taking seriously this traumatic experience that I had.

So part of what we do is not just make sure that government is operating effectively, but it's to work to give voice to New Yorkers who might otherwise be unseen.

So I encourage any New Yorker who has concerns about fraud or corruption in New York state government to reach out to us at 1-800-do-right, and to follow our work on social media at New Yorkstate IG, which has been a very useful way of reaching a broader swath of the public and pleased that we get complaints in from across the spectrum.

In terms of our analysis of the solitary confinement act or, HALT, for example, we received tips and concerns that came in both from the incarcerated population and families of the incarcerated population in New York and from staff of the department of corrections, and that is what we really seek to do is to provide an opportunity for all New Yorkers to bring us their concerns so that we can determine when government is working for New Yorkers.

And apart from that issue, the last time you were on the show, you unpacked the issue of workers compensation fraud in New York state prison.

So can you tell us more about where that issue stands today and any progress that's potentially been made on that front?

What we identified when I was last on the show was that there was a provision of the department of corrections contract that resulted in really extreme numbers of corrections officers being out on workers compensation leave it was coming at a cost to incarcerated New Yorkers' safety and programming as well as to the safety of corrections officers.

That problem, unfortunately, seems to continue to persist.

That said, we are doing great work on workers compensation oversight.

We had a recent case out of Saratoga county that was really devastating set of facts in which a contractor did not have-- rather did not have workers compensation coverage and a roofer unfortunately fell to his death and the contractor actually moved the body to cover up the fact it had been a workplace related injury and he didn't have workers compensation.

We're pleased that resulted in a guilty plea to a felony and that is just one example of the extraordinary work that our workers compensation staff do every day, making sure that people who should have workers compensation insurance to take care of their workers are being held responsible to that commitment.

And as you mentioned earlier, your office has been pushing transparency and the use of the open data interface to just track the complaints that you're getting from New Yorkers.

Can you tell us more about the interface and how it has informed the work that you're doing daily?

Absolutely.

We hired the first-ever Chief technology officer at the offices of the Inspector General and I'm really pleased that we have a robust technology unit who are amongst the sort of back bones of our office.

We are putting out monthly a dashboard that indicates where our complaints are coming from and what is happening with them, so that the public can hold us accountable for doing the work of following up on all the complaints we receive.

In the years to come, how are you hoping to offer more transparency to New Yorkers?

We're going to continue with our commitment to putting out letters that we send to agencies with recommendations for change.

We're going to continue to push out our reporting on large scale and systemic problems.

We're going to continue to monthly publish our data, but perhaps all the more so, we are really leaning in to having conversations with media and having conversations through social media to reach a broader swath of New Yorkers and to getting out in the community.

I'm very proud that we have built out a training unit for the first time at the office, we have a very seasoned lawyer who is dedicated full time to training New York state employees on the ground and she and other members of our staff have been at the race tracks, at the parks, at the prisons, at many of the agencies we oversee talking to folks who do the work every day, stay keeping New York state clean for New Yorkers, keeping New York state children through the office of children and family services, keeping those young people safe and making sure that their needs are met, and we are making sure that those staffers have the tools they need to report when they see anything that's concerning to them.

So our really investing in training is making a tremendous difference in educating New York state employees and New Yorkers, more generally, about the fact that we are here to-- to be the watch dogs of New York state government.

And lastly, as I mentioned at the top of the interview, you've been leading the state department for three years, so what do the years to come look like?

Are there any other issues that you haven't been able to focus on that you're hoping to look into more broadly?

We do what we can to let the data direct us, and for example, we really invested early on in our oversight of the department of corrections because more than half of our complaints annually were coming in related to that department.

So we're going to continue to track where the complaints are coming in and to invest resources where we see them.

Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me.

And we were speaking with the New York State Inspector General, Lucy Lang.

[ THEME MUSIC ] And for more information, you can visit our website.

That's at NYnow.org.

Now turning to another important topic.

It's been over a year since the October 7th attack and the start of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Since then, student protests against the war have continued on College campuses across the state.

In this next segment, our Elise Kline dove into the State's handling of those protests.

Here's that story.

[ THEME MUSIC ] It's been over a year since the first attack on Israel ignited the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian militia group occupying the Gaza strip.

Following the war's first anniversary, many students and community organizers alike continue to protest in solidarity for Palestine.

Line Henriksen, who has been organizing with Palestinian rights committee Albany, says they want to see an end to suffering.

Palestinians are being slaughtered, and we are of the opinion that this is a genocide and it needs to stop.

While many pro-palestine advocates are happy to see their community come together to organize and speak up for what they believe in, they are disappointed in the State's response especially on College campuses.

Eyad Alkurabi, a first generation Palestinian and community organizer, says advocates for Palestine are being silenced.

It's heartbreaking and down right disgusting that Kathy Hochul has been only focusing on the Zionist narrative and Israel's narrative and completely denounce and ignore and shame the Palestinian narrative.

At a recent press conference, Governor Kathy Hochul told WMHT that everyone has the right to protest, but she said there is a line.

Highlighting concerns about students facing discriminatory behavior.

The Governor also stressed time, place and manner restrictions which are limitations on expressive activity related to when, where and how expression occurs.

We're going to make sure that the students have a right to protest legitimately, but if you cross that line and attack another person because of their religion, you are in violation of state and federal human rights laws.

The institutions that allow that to happen are in violations of those laws.

That's what I also warn.

They'll be looking to enforce.

However, some students fear they are being generalized and inflated with examples of anti-Semitism from bad actors.Malak Abuhashim, a grad student at Cornell and a member of justice for Palestine, says anti-Semitc incidents do happen on campuses, but they are not coming from pro-palestine protesters.

She adds many pro-palestine groups have also condemned incidents of anti-Semitism.

I'm not going to deny that anti-Semitism doesn't exist and isn't an issue.

I think it's a real issue, but from what we've seen is that it's not coming from our community.

It's coming from outside agitators.

It's coming from people who carry this hate and are using these rise of events to let their hate come out.

Jay Saper from Jewish voice agreed and stresses it is perfectly consistent with Jewish values to criticize Zionism and take action against genocide.

We're actually compelled the anti-Zionist Jews to do these things.

So we are disturbed by universities that are silencing students that are supporting justice for all people.

Abuhashim Say pro-palestinian communities on campus fear retaliation from university administration.

So for instance, with the interim expressive policy that came out from essentially like pro-palestinian protests, you see students that are getting suspended, students that are getting nearly deported.

Cornell's new policy outlines time, place and manner restrictions such as limiting when amplified sound can be used.

This policy also outlines the potential for disciplinary action.

Thomas Healy, a first amendment expert and a professor at Seton hall law school, says much of the policy appears to be related to conduct of expressive actions.

Healy says it's important to make a distinction between regulation of speech because of its message and a regulation of speech for another reason, such as the time, place or manner.

Limitations on sound amplification are kind of Classic example of a time, place and manner regulation and those kinds of regulations are usually upheld as consistent with the first amendment as long as they are substantially related to an important governmental goal, right, and the government goal in this case would probably be protecting the, you know, the quiet of the campus.

But time, place and manner restrictions can be rejected.

One of the ways that a time, place and manner regulation can be rejected is if it looks like it's really just an excuse to regulate the content of student speech, or if it's being applied inconsistently.

Healy cautions that there could be some red flags.

A response that the students might have is, well, you know, are there-- are there other times of the day when we could have sound amplification that wouldn't disrupt those legitimate activities in is the university going overboard here?

And unnecessarily limiting us to two places and to only one hour of the day.

However, Cornell students are frustrated with more than just recent policy action by the university.

Abuhashim says Cornell university tried to prevent students for justice for Palestine from reregistering as an organization on campus despite completing all the required steps on time.

The student group sent multiple follow-ups to the campus activities office with no response.

Students then called them out on social media.

That's just like one example of how they our organization, justice for Palestine, has felt targeted and discriminated against by our administration.

Abuhashim says their group was reregistered after shaming the university's lack of response on social media.

When asked about this incident described by students a Cornell spokesperson said despite the large number of student organizations processed, there has been no delay or deviation from their standard time line.

Some students who faced punishment from Cornell worried the administration is being too harsh against protests for Palestine.

Jacob Berman, a senior at Cornell and Vice President of the chapter of Jewish voice for peace, was suspended and banned from the university campus for code of conduct violations after participating in a pro-palestine rally that shut down a career fair in September.

This is an overreaction.

There have been protests at career fairs at Cornell before and they never gave out punishments this harsh before.

I also think it's funny under the guise of protecting Jewish students when I'm a Jewish student.

I'm a-- I help run services.

I was actually barred from attending a meeting, Jewish Shabbat services.

Cornell president said in a statement following the career fair protest, a clear line was crossed and the university is obligated to respond.

But students' fears extend beyond Cornell's campus.

Students for justice at Palestine at SUNY Albany would only speak collectively as a group to keep students safe from what they fear will result in university repercussions and in the past year, over 100 SUNY students in New Paltz have been arrested for protecting via an encampment on campus.

Students and staff heavily criticize the police response saying it was in violation of first amendment rights and happened after students removed the tents before a deadline administration had given them.

Alex Hanks, an Albany community organizer, stresses this isn't the first instance of repercussions against student protesters.

It's a really terrifying moment for people-- people that are students that are just trying to stand up for their morals, what they believe in and stand against genocide, stand against their institution's support and complacency of genocide.

When asked about the arrest, a spokesperson from SUNY said students who abide by the campus code of conduct have never been or will be punished for activity that is protected by the first amendment.

On CUNY campuseses a recent policy report is also creating conflict.

Judge Jonathan lippman at the direction of Governor Kathy Hochul conducted a review CUNY's antidiscrimination and anti-Semitism policies.

The review has been widely criticized on SUNY and CUNY campuses saying they are disgusted.

SUNY Albany students for justice in Palestine says even the title anti-Semitism and discrimination at the University of New York singles out anti-Semitism as a unique and special form of hatred while regulating Islamaphobia, an equally pervasive issue on CUNY campuses.

The student group highlighted while the nearly 200-page report has a 12-page section dedicated to anti-Semitism, there is not one section dedicated to Islamaphobia, antiblack racism, Asian hate or any other form of discrimination on CUNY campuses.

Healy says while he's not sure if the review is deliberately focusing on one form of discrimination over another, it's certainly a good question for students to raise.

It would certainly be a problem if a public university was only focused on discrimination against particular racial groups or particular religious groups, right.

So if the university adopted a policy that said you can't harass people based upon their Jewish identity, but didn't say anything about harassment against people based upon some other religious identity or ethnic identity or cultural identity or racial identity that would be a real problem.

Another part of the report highlights time, place and manner restrictions, stating universities can impose certain reasonable viewpoint and content-neutral regulations.

Healy says the argument the report is making is that CUNY can regulate speech as long as it's not regulating the speech based on the viewpoint or the content.

However, students aren't alone.

Some lawmakers have also expressed concern about the review.

There are aspects of that report that borderline on government overreach.

That can be very dangerous for student expression and our democracy.

Both CUNY and judge Lippman declined to comment on questions about the review.

Many advocates say they are protesting for Palestine not just to call for a cease-fire but to call on government officials and College administrations to divest from Israel.

We need divestment.

We demand boycott and we deserve sanctions.

The state comptroller says while everyone is entitled to their opinion, their view is the Israel investments have been positive for the state.

As an investor, we invest to make money to secure the retirement benefits for our public employees, state workers and local government workers across the state.

And part of our portfolio does include investments in the state of Israel.

Those investments have performed well and we have no plans to change our investment strategy.

Cornell students pushing for divestment, earlier this year, issued a referendum to their university asking them to cut off ten companies tied to the war in Gaza, particularly companies providing weapons to Israel.

The university president declined the students' request saying the school has concerns about an Executive Order prohibiting state entities from investment activity intended to target Israel.

However, in the order a state entity is defined as all agencies and departments over which the Governor has executive authority.

Cornell is a private institution.

Other universities have also rejected the students call for divestment.

SUNY says they stand with the Governor in rejecting boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

Some lawmakers in Albany have taken action around this very issue.

One bill called the not on our dime bill would prohibit nonprofit organizations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.

.

Brisport says the bill was killed in committee last session because many politicians are afraid of taking a public stance on this issue.

Other legislation from Republicans across the aisle tries to address concerns of anti-Semitism by prohibiting anti-Semitism on College campuses, preventing state aid to universities that promote anti-Semitism, and even taking away students' tuition assistance for promoting anti-Semitism or inciting violence.

I think they're pretty not radical bills.

I think they address the situation that unfortunately we're seeing a big rise in New York state with anti-Semitism and incidents of hate.

But last session these bills didn't make the progress some lawmakers were hoping for, none making it out of their designated committees.

.

Democratic lawmakers across the aisle argue these bills are unfounded.

Some free speech experts also raise questions saying this legislation is deeply problematic for the first amendment.

Healy says it's too vague, it doesn't clearly define what Anti-Semitism is at a time when many people have different definitions.

And it could restrict legitimate discussion about the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Healy also says even when dealing with unprotected areas of speech like incitement, it's problematic to only target types of content such as anti-Semitism.

To say to students we will take away your tuition funds or your tuition grants if you incite violence but only if you incite violence on the basis of anti-Semitism is a type of content discrimination because what it does is it makes a distinction between different types of incitements.

Some Republican lawmakers argue many bills are crafted with specific groups in mind.

As students and community organizers plan to continue their efforts protesting for Palestine and calling for divestment from Israel, lawmakers plan policy action.

Legislative Session starts in January and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said they plan to reintroduce bills around this issue.

At this point, it's unclear whether or not those bills will do better than they did last session.

We'll be keeping track of progress here in Albany as it develops.

Elise Kline, "New York Now."

And for more on the State's response to student protests, you can subscribe to our newsletter, by going to newsletter.NYnow.org.

Well, that does it for this edition of "New York Now."

Thank you for tuning in and see you next week.

[ THEME MUSIC ] Announcer: funding for "New York Now" is provided by WNET.