State Inspector General Lucy Lang shares road to her success in NY State government
NEW YORK (WABC) -- As we celebrate Women's History Month, we're spotlighting a woman who has worked her way up through the ranks to becoming on of the most powerful women in New York State government.
Eyewitness News Reporter Sonia Rincon sat down with State Inspector General Lucy Lang about the road to her success.
As State Inspector General, Lucy Lang leads the office that investigates allegations of wrongdoing across state agencies or welfare and workers comp fraud.
Any criminal allegations get referred to the appropriate prosecutors.
While state employees found liable can be fired, The inspector general cannot.
"It's structured so that while I serve for the duration of the term of the governor who appointed me, I can't be removed from that governor, and rightly so, because we have to have the freedom to investigate the commissioners and the agencies that serve under the executive branch," Lang said.
The independence of the IG office is while Lang will rarely be in the same place as the governor who appointed her.
She may be visiting a state corrections facility.
"I have visited every one of New York state's 42 prisons and met with guard administrators and with incarcerated New Yorkers at all of those facilities," Lang said.
More than half the 6,000 annual complaints to the state IG deal with corrections facilities, something Lang knows a thing or two about.
Years before she ran for Manhattan District Attorney in 2021, she worked in that office, and started a college course that's still going to this day at Columbia's Center For Justice, which brings prosecutors and incarcerated New Yorkers together.
"It helped educate me to the idea that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution," Lang said.
That idea is also central to another of her accomplishments: A children's book she co-authored with her sister.
"We wrote a book about the 1915 Women's March down Fifth Avenue, which at the time was the biggest march in New York City history," Lang said.
Her sister is an illustrator and arts educator. Most of Lang's family members are in creative fields.
"My father's an actor, my mother is a painter. My two brothers work in film," Lang said.
Her father is actor Stephen Lang from Avatar.
He was also in a walking campaign ad for his daughter when she ran for D.A.
She lost the primary to Alvin Bragg, but only a few months later, she landed this critical and powerful role.
"What feels most important about this job right now is to be in a position to keep the institutions that New Yorkers rely on running and running with integrity," Lang said.
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