A Push for Second Chances in New York Prisons and a Taste of Hell’s Kitchen

Iru Ekpunobi: Criminal justice advocates push for legislation that gives some New York inmates a second chance, and a taste of Hell's Kitchen. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Iru Ekpunobi, in for Janae Pierre. Criminal justice reform advocates hope 2026 may finally be the year that New York State lawmakers adopt something called a Second Look law. If they do, thousands of prisoners who have spent decades in prison could ask judges to reconsider their sentences. WNYC's Ryan Kost reports.

Ryan Kost: Can you remind me where you're calling from? Which facility?

Shawn Peace: I'm calling from Green Haven Correctional Facility.

Ryan Kost: 16 years ago, Shawn Peace was arrested by New York City police following a string of fast food restaurant robberies that stretched for nearly six months. Peace shot two people. A Popeyes employee in the hand and a cab driver. Peace left the driver bleeding from his neck, slumped over in his car. He spent months recovering in the hospital, according to news reports at the time. Then Queens District Attorney Richard Brown called Peace "a menace to society." In May 2014, Peace was sentenced to 110 years in prison.

Shawn Peace: Well, when that number came out of the judge's mouth, it was unbelievable. I was shocked. I was dealing with various emotions simultaneously.

Ryan Kost: His sister, Charisse Peace, was in the courtroom when the sentence came down.

Charisse Peace: Well, interestingly enough, I was the one who turned my brother in.

Ryan Kost: She says she didn't have a choice.

Charisse Peace: At that time, in the space that he was in, the only two alternatives would have been prison or death.

Ryan Kost: She never expected him to get more than a lifetime in prison. A wave of guilt washed over her when she heard the number.

Charisse Peace: It's virtually a life sentence, just without saying life.

Ryan Kost: Over the years, Charisse says she's watched as her brother took responsibility for his actions. He's used his time in prison to better himself. 10 states and Washington, D.C., have so called Second Look laws that allow people in prison to ask judges to review their sentences, to take into account how they've changed over a period of years and decades. New York only allows this sort of review for domestic violence victims and only if the abuse was a significant factor in their crime. Criminal justice reform advocates are hoping 2026 may finally be the year that lawmakers pass something broader. Steve Zeidman is a law professor at CUNY, and co-director of the Second Look Project.

Steve Zeidman: The momentum for a Second Look bill is as powerful and burgeoning in ways I've never seen before.

Ryan Kost: Dozens of legislators in both the Assembly and the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors. If the act were to pass, anyone in a state prison could apply for a sentence review after serving 10 years or half of their sentence, if longer than a decade, whichever is less.

Steve Zeidman: So many of those folks that we work with have been in 20, 30, 40 years. The question is, are they going to die in prison or is there some mechanism for someone to reexamine their sentence, see who they've become, see if they merit a second look?

Ryan Kost: Republicans are signaling that bill will face some opposition. Assemblymember Phil Palmesano, from Western New York, says the legislation is too broad. He says it would reopen cases that are already settled, while prioritizing criminals over victims.

Assemblymember Phil Palmesano: These soft on crime bills like this really erase the hard fought justice that so many families are fighting for to hold criminals accountable.

Ryan Kost: Under the bill, a judge could take into account a number of factors, including the applicant's past traumas, effort toward rehabilitation, or a victim statement. Trevor Bell, the cab driver Shawn Peace shot, doesn't believe a judge should reduce Peace's sentence if given the chance. Bell suffered gunshot wounds to his neck and legs. He had two strokes during his time in the hospital. He lost strength and dexterity and still struggles to walk. Bell says he almost died.

Trevor Bell: I'm a Jamaican, and I don't-- I believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Ryan Kost: Okay.

Trevor Bell: I believe in that once you attempt to take a man life, you should be punished for it.

Ryan Kost: Rowan Wilson, the state's chief judge, has made the Second Look bill a top priority of his own.

Rowan Wilson: The beauty of this is it doesn't ask any judge to say you were wrong with the decision you made 20 years ago.

Ryan Kost: He was at a recent town hall to rally support behind the legislation. The event was organized by the reform group, Communities Not Cages.

Rowan Wilson: They can feel perfectly confident that that was the right decision then, but this person has so radically transformed himself or herself that now I can make another good decision.

Ryan Kost: For Shawn Peace, that journey of transformation started with a conversation with his sister, the first in four years after he learned she'd turned him in.

Shawn Peace: I asked her, how could she do this to me? How could she turn me into the police? She told me that she didn't recognize me anymore.

Ryan Kost: Peace says he's become a facilitator for anti-violence programs. He's earned an associate's degree and is pursuing a bachelor's with Columbia University. He's even started training puppies to be service animals. He says he doesn't make excuses for the crime that put him in prison, but he hopes to one day have a chance to tell a judge how much he's changed.

Shawn Peace: For individuals like myself who have been putting in the work, who deserve a second chance, this is the last hope. The Second Look act is the last hope.

Ryan Kost: Lawmakers will begin the 2026 legislative session on January 7th.

[music]

Iru Ekpunobi: Up next, let's head to Hell's Kitchen, where the food scene is hot, crowded, and very much alive. That's after the break.

[music]

Speaker: NYC Now.

Iru Ekpunobi: If you're looking for the best neighborhood for New York City food or just a good place to get a nice meal while the transplants are out of town, food critic Robert Sietsema says, "Go to Hell's Kitchen."

Robert Sietsema: It has restaurants in all price ranges. You can eat well there for $5 or you can spend $200, or anything in between.

Iru Ekpunobi: He says Hell's Kitchen has a wide variety of cuisines for you to choose from, if you want to feel like you're anywhere but the United States right now.

Robert Sietsema: You can get African food, you can get French food, you can get Indian food that is nuanced in its regionality.

Iru Ekpunobi: If you just want a hot dog or a burger, you can get that, too. Robert wrote up a full list of his Hell Kitchen faves on our website, Gothamist. We asked him to highlight a few. First, he says, check out B&D Halal.

Robert Sietsema: It's one of the handful of Pan West African restaurants that we have. It's a modest steam table joint with at least 60 or 70 choices of dishes. You can get dishes from Guinea, you can get dishes from Senegal, you can get dishes from the Côte d'Ivoire, also known as the Ivory Coast.

Iru Ekpunobi: If you love peanut butter, check out their Mafé, which is a Senegalese peanut sauce. A little spicy and very delicious. Another spot on Robert's list, this one boasting a free hot dog with every beer, Rudy's.

Robert Sietsema: If you can't find Rudy's, there's something wrong with you, because there's a 6 foot tall pink pig in a waistcoat standing in front. I don't mean a real pig, I mean a statue of a pig. This is what beckons you into this amazing dive bar.

Iru Ekpunobi: He says Rudy's Bar & Grill is the only real dive bar left on its short stretch of 9th Avenue. The only food they serve is hot dogs, though. So, if you're looking for more of an upscale sit down experience--

Robert Sietsema: You can spend a $100 if you want, at a place called Jaz, and that's with one Z. Jaz is one of these magnificent new upscale Indian restaurants that have been popping up especially in Manhattan, where with cocktails you could blow $200. It would be a good expenditure of your money because this place has food from Northern India, which would be the Mughal food, the Punjabi food, the Bengali food, but it also has foods from South India. A lot of that food is laced with coconut milk, it has curry leaves in it. It's shot with black mustard seed. It's a whole different flavor palette. So, if you love Indian food, go to this place, because it is very elegant, and maybe wear a sport coat.

[music]

Iru Ekpunobi: That's Robert Sietsema. He writes about food on gothamist.com, and for his Substack, Robert Sietsema's New York. Thanks for listening to NYC Now, from WNYC. I hope you enjoyed your holiday. We'll be back next week.

[music]

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.