A Democratic Socialists of America-backed public defender running for a state Assembly seat in Harlem wants to send convicted rapists, child molesters and murderers to “treatment programs” instead of prisons.
Conrad Blackburn, who is trying to unseat first-term incumbent Assemblyman Jordan Wright, insisted during a March 2024 podcast appearance that locking people up isn’t the answer — even if they’re convicted for serious crimes like “predatory sexual assaults of children” and homicide.
“Even if, like, the client is guilty as f–king sin, I still don’t think that the punishment, like, meets what happened,” said Blackburn, a staff lawyer for nonprofit Bronx Defenders, on the “Brothers In Law” podcast he co-hosts.
“I still don’t think that person deserves to be thrown in a cage and locked away for the rest of their life.”…