RAPP Campaign

You are here: Home / Archives for slideshow

Parolees Deserve Justice: Stop Villifying Formerly Incarcerated People to Get Votes

Share

by Nora Carroll and Dave George, Albany Times Union, October 20, 2018:

State Sen. Patrick Gallivan recently chaired “public” hearings on New York State Parole Board policies and procedures, and on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order that makes people on parole eligible to vote in this year’s elections.

Gallivan, R-Elma, and many of his Republican colleagues contend the governor’s restoration of voting rights is unconstitutional and endangers public safety, and that the Board of Parole has granted parole release to increasing numbers of “high risk” people.

 

These contentions are not only false, but also a clearly partisan attempt to incite race-based close to the mid-term elections.

Republicans’ objections to people on parole voting offer another example of their desire to limit rather than expand the fundamental core of democratic participation. They also promote a long-legacy of racism that vilifies currently and formerly incarcerated people for the purposes of inciting racist fear among voters.

The remote possibility (because there have been no reported incidents) of a newly-enfranchised parolee committing some crime at a polling place like a school is nothing but a dog whistle. It’s a desperate Willie Horton-esque move by Republican leaders to generate race-based fear before an important election.

It’s undeniable that proportionately more black people and people of color, especially black men, are in prison. This overrepresentation in the criminal legal system is precisely why issues like clemency, felony enfranchisement, and parole justice are racial justice issues, and why trying to disempower people on parole from participating in electoral politics is plainly racist.

The other imaginary menace postulated by many Senate Republicans is the Parole Board’s release of people they deem dangerous or irredeemable. Their hearings purported to examine the standards the Board of Parole uses and whether they are complying with them, as though the Board of Parole has suddenly unlocked the gates and released everyone who appears before them. This is hardly the case. The truth is, while the board’s release rates have incrementally ticked upward over the last year, the majority of parole applicants are still denied parole. That most people appealing for their freedom continue to be denied it for years and decades is the real injustice that Senate Republicans and all New Yorkers should focus on. But that’s unlikely, because for Gallivan and his colleagues these hearings were never about the well-being of New Yorkers or public safety.

The real beef that Republican Senators have is not with the executive branch or the Board of Parole, it’s with their own legislative branch. The people who are interviewed by the Board of Parole are those who were sentenced by judges to parole-eligible sentences. It is the Legislature that determines the sentences for all criminal offenses, not the Parole Board. Therefore, when Gallivan and others opine that someone convicted of murdering a police officer should never be released from prison, they are effectively telling the Parole Board to defy the very laws that they, the Legislature, created. It would be unlawful for the Board of Parole to decline to review someone’s case just because of their crime.

This comes with great irony given that Gallivan’s career as a sheriff, Parole Board commissioner and now legislator has supposedly been about upholding, enforcing and literally making the law.

Further, the “no parole for cop killers” philosophy is troubling when subjected to the most minimal scrutiny. It suggests a greater value should be placed on the lives of law enforcement officers than the rest of us. It denies the reality of redemption and rehabilitation that is so apparent to most people who have even the most minimal experience with prison populations, whether as a convicted person or service provider, attorney, chaplain or prison volunteer. It rejects scientific evidence-based approaches to reducing epic levels of incarceration by releasing those who post the lowest risk: older people convicted of violent crimes. Finally, and perhaps most troubling, this philosophy centers and celebrates the retributive, punitive function of the criminal legal system by embracing life-without-parole sentences, also known as “death by incarceration.”

The motivations of Gallivan and other Senate Republicans are clear in our current political context. With the dissolution of the Independent Democratic Conference and the and recent electoral defeat of six former IDC senators, Republicans are on the verge of losing control of the Senate. Their response is to attempt to drum up and animate the white part of their base that is fearful of those they do not know or understand: black and brown people and the formerly incarcerated.

White voters shouldn’t take the bait and let Republicans succeed, let alone get away with this age-old political strategy. What should be exposed are the injustices facing people in prison and their families. Republican Senators should hear loud and clear that New Yorkers want and demand parole justice, not race-baiting politics.

Nora Carroll is co-director of the Parole Preparation Project. Dave George is associate director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign.

Support RAPP’s work: Donate to our online fundraiser

Check our events page for ways to get involved

 

 

Share

Republicans Try to Bolster Mass Incarceration, Advocates Say No

Share

On October 1, 2018, a broad coalition of criminal justice advocates, formerly incarcerated people and community members gathered in Albany before a NYS Senate Republican hearing on the State Parole Board’s conduct and the Governor’s restoration of voting rights to more than 24,000 people on parole.

Advocates Rallied to Call Out Senate Republican Leadership’s Racist Political Agenda, Interference in Independent Parole Board Decisions and Peoples’ Right to Vote

WATCH the short press conference here

WATCH Parole Preparation Project and RAPP testimony here

Advocates stood in support of voting rights for all people and increases in Parole Board release rates despite strong opposition from some Republican Senators. Advocates called out the racist political tactics of many Senate Republicans attempting to demonize and attack currently and formerly incarcerated people for political purposes and before the November elections. Advocates said that Senate Republican-led hearings were not rooted in concerns for  “public safety” or crime victims, but aimed at mobilizing their voting base in battleground Senate districts and scaring their constituency. Advocates said that the Parole Board should release more incarcerated people and that all people on parole should have the opportunity to vote, regardless of their crime. They stood with representatives of victims and survivors of crime to make clear that mass incarceration does not support healing, safety or justice for crime survivors and victims.

“New York State Senate Republican leaders need to stop playing political football with the lives of currently and formerly incarcerated people,” said Jose Hamza Saldana, Community Organizer with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign. “After 38 years in prison, four parole denials and having just voted for the first time in my life, these political optics are a direct attack on me, my family and all incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men and women. There are thousands of parole-eligible and community-ready people languishing in prisons across the state, some for over three decades. The Parole Board should release them instead of re-sentencing them to death by incarceration.” Saldana continued, “Parolees are returning citizens. We were once a part of the problem but today and for a long time we have been an integral part of the solution. We are committed to working with faith and community-based organizations to develop viable strategies to address the social ills plaguing our communities. We will educate, organize, and advocate to retain our fundamental right to vote, and with the support of the community, we will vote our elders home. Let not one more of our elders die in prison.”

“Too often the actions public officials take in the name of crime victims, particularly in the name of survivors of sexual and domestic violence, do not line up with the actual needs and desires of the majority of survivors, especially survivors from communities that are most at risk,” said Chrys Ballerano, Senior Director of the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “As an organization committed to healing and justice for all survivors and to truly ending sexual violence, NYSCASA recognizes that reliance on a biased and inherently reactive criminal justice system will not achieve these goals. Like many survivors, we would rather see public officials take action to ensure that survivors, their families, and communities have the comprehensive resources they need to heal and to thrive; that significant investments are made in community services and institutions that will prevent violence from happening in the first place; that people who commit harm are held accountable in a meaningful way that does not perpetuate a cycle of violence; and that people who commit harm have access to the services they need to stop committing harm.”

“As Ranking Member of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, I fully support Governor Cuomo’s decision to restore voting rights to those who have paid their debt to society,” said Senator Luis Sepulveda, who represents the 32nd District in the Bronx. “They also need more supportive programs – and opportunities – to help put and keep them on a stable and productive footing.” Sepulveda continued, “I also believe it is time for a major overhaul of the state’s Parole Board, which the New York Times in an in-depth investigative report called “a broken system.” To that end, I, the Senate Democratic Conference and the Ranking Member of the Senate Health Committee plan to hold a public forum this November in New York City on the issue of Parole Board reform, in which we hope to address a number of issues, including racial disparity of its membership and inadequate reporting of specific details in assessing its decisions.”

“The National Action Network was honored to have Gov. Cuomo announce his executive order, granting conditional voting rights to over 35,000 people on parole in the state of New York at our National Convention,” said Reverend Al Sharpton, President and Founder of National Action Network. “We have fought and will continue to fight for every person’s fundamental right to vote, despite their history in the justice system. Mass incarceration has only served as a smokescreen for systematized oppression and racist practices. Taking away someone’s right to a voice in our democracy only furthers their disempowerment in a system that has already misserved them for too long. As citizens of their communities, they deserve a right to their voice. Voting and fair parole practices are pillars of a fair restorative and rehabilitative system of justice.”

“The majority of incarcerated older adults have completed or even developed many progressive programs that promote education, constructive and critical thinking, and pro-social behaviors for the betterment of the community,” said James Royall, Re-Entry Advocate at Brooklyn Defender Services. “Rejoining their families and being part of the fabric of society is paramount to them. These are the very individuals who, after release, continue to make tremendous contributions to our society, whether as entrepreneurs, mentors, or loving family members. The state must accelerate the release of these elderly people and uphold the voting rights of all those who are justice-involved.”

“Parole is not an institution that belongs swept up in the ever changing political wind. It is an important tool that allows society to acknowledge the completion of an individual’s sentence, and their capacity to have used their time within the correctional facilities to reflect and change,” said Christopher E. Bromson, Executive Director of the Crime Victims Treatment Center and Co-Chair of the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims Legislative Committee. “Just as victims have the capacity to heal, and can be offered support to move beyond the trauma of victimization, so too do offenders have the capacity to move beyond criminal behavior. Just as each survivor of a crime is an individual, so too is each incarcerated person. Policies barring the Parole Board from considering the important details of each individual case would exclude a vast number of survivors whose voices deserve to be heard. Many survivors view parole as a justified and appropriate end to an extremely painful experience.”

“These ill-timed hearings are clearly a political stunt orchestrated by Senate Republicans to score political points and to mobilize their voters prior to November’s general elections,” said State Senator Gustavo Rivera. “They are being held to cast a cloud of doubt against incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, even after they have paid their debt to society and have been rehabilitated. As a legislator who is fighting relentlessly to reform our criminal justice system, I will continue to champion common sense measures, such as my bill to implement discretionary release as part of the parole process, so that our State can truly improve the parole system for both victims and incarcerated individuals.”

“If people have served their time inside, then they deserve the rights afforded to them on the outside. Voting is one of those rights,” said Reverend Dr. Que English, Founder, NYC Clergy Roundtable. “The system once again is looking for ways to keep our people in bondage while free. Instead of looking for ways to keep people from their rights, let’s work to improve and enhance opportunities, education, housing, and other important supports.”

“This week, the current majority in the State Senate will hold hearings to reinforce their position that the Parole Board releases too many people. It is a sad day when elected officials call a system broken because parole board members are increasingly fulfilling their sworn duty to uphold the law. Instead of this politically-driven attack, our legislators could work towards a more effective—and just—system,” said Liz Gaynes, president and CEO of the Osborne Association. “We must fill the seven empty seats on the Parole Board so that overloaded Commissioners can thoroughly consider the unique circumstances in each case; digitize records so that Commissioners need not travel long distances to review a single copy of paper records, in some cases just minutes before a hearing that is held by video-conference; and move to in-person parole hearings that are fully staffed by three commissioners. Our current televised but not digitized process makes it even more difficult to assess fully the person before them, leading to thousands of people facing repeated denials despite the wishes of prosecutors, sentencing judges, and in many cases, the victims themselves.”

“The politics of fear and the false connection between race, dangerousness, and criminality have served as obstacles to parole justice for far too long,” said Anthony Thompson, Director of New York University Law Center on Race Inequality and the Law. “We should be working to change that paradigm, and implementing reforms that help get people who have paid their debt to society and changed their lives for the better out of prison and successfully reintegrated into their communities. Unreasonably curtailing parole releases and silencing the political voices of those who have been released from prison is bad policy, guaranteed to reproduce the unfairness and injustice we should all stand against.”

“The Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) supports people who are on parole to have the right to vote, and urges that New York release more people on parole,” said Victor Pate, Community Organizer with the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement. “People who have served their time and been released on parole are New York citizens who should have an opportunity to vote for the representatives who make decisions affecting their and others’ lives. Regarding releases, for far too long the Parole Board has repeatedly denied release to those who have demonstrated their low risk, accomplishments and transformation, and readiness for release to the outside community. The Board needs to look at the people who sit before them and base their release decisions on evidence-based, forward-looking factors.”

“Denying me and others who have been justice-involved the right to vote does not help build communities,” said Edwin Santana, Campaign Leader with JustLeadershipUSA. “Restoring voting rights to people on parole provides a voice to those who have been disenfranchised by mass incarceration, overwhelmingly people of color. While Senate Republicans claim that the Parole Board has been “lenient,” anyone paying attention knows the Board is finally taking baby steps in the right direction, but still has miles to go. As a person who lived through multiple parole denials, I have experienced their total disregard for rehabilitation and sheer uselessness of the system Senate Republicans are looking to re-impose. I say let’s invest in forgiveness and healing in order to give our community the nurturing it needs to grow strong.”

“We need to trust our Parole Board professionals to release individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety,” said Chief Brendan Cox (Ret.) Albany Police Department. “We want them out of prison, contributing to society instead of costing us $100 a day that could be reinvested into programs that prevent crime.”

“Parole must be decided based on criteria such as rehabilitation, remorse, and growth,” said Allen Roskoff, President of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club. “Republican Senators’ desire to base parole release solely on revenge and retribution is wrong. It shows a lack of understanding of human potential and degrades the value of human life and the very concept of humanity.”

“It is disgraceful that Senate Republicans continue to oppose the restoration of voting rights for people on parole,” said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY. “Do Senate Republicans also think Dean Skelos should be denied the right to vote when he’s eventually paroled? Sheldon Silver? People on parole in New York deserve the right to vote, just like they do in many other states. It’s time for New York to catch up.”

“Limiting opportunities for people to fully engage in society based on their past mistakes makes little sense and is among the last vestiges of race-based voter suppression,” said Avery Bizzell, Community Organizer with Community Service Society. “Voting is the bedrock of democracy, the voice of the people. For individuals to successfully thrive in our communities, they must have the opportunity to vote and be fully empowered stakeholders.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Dave George, ddgeorge23@gmail.com, (631) 885-3565

Watch the press conference here

Full press statement here

Read our press statement opposing Long Island hearing by Senate Republicans, Oct. 2, 2018

Testimony of Jose Hamza Saldana, RAPP

Testimony of Michelle Lewin, Parole Preparation Project

Share

NYS Parole Board report shows justice still unfulfilled

Share

August 14, 2018: Along with the Parole Preparation Project, RAPP today released our latest report, The New York State Parole Board: Failures in Staffing and Performance.

“No one can appreciate the importance of sitting in those rooms making liberty decisions except those who sit on either side of the table. I applaud your work. Staff shortages result in applicants seeing see the same commissioners again and again, and they never get a date.” —Barbara Treen, former commissioner, NYS Board of Parole

Over the past two years, RAPP and other advocates and community members have succeeded in winning some changes in the practices of the New York State Parole Board, so that some decisions are now based in rehabilitation and transformation—who a person is today, as opposed to who they were decades ago when their crime was committed. This has begun to bring the Board into line with the law and best practices advocated by criminal justice experts.

But these advances continue to be undercut by other trends in the Board, including understaffing and the presence of several commissioners who continue to resist practices based in rehabilitation. These commissioners enable powerful, reactionary law enforcement forces to interfere in release decisions, illegally turning parole-eligible sentences into de facto life without parole.

Our new report exposes the horrific practices of the New York State Parole Board and their impact on incarcerated people across New York State.

You can read more coverage of the report in the Daily News

Share

Trump, Lynch, And Who We Call Animals: A Safety Alert

Share

• BY SUSIE DAY • Did you hear Trump call undocumented immigrants animals? It’s stirring up — rightly — a lot of concern. Among humans, “animal” is the essential, go-to word to deprive people of their humanity. It’s the permission some people give themselves to ridicule, enslave, and commit genocide against other people. “Animal” is a term we read as a danger signal, even in a society such as ours, which was built on ridicule, enslavement, and genocide. And “animal” is often used by law enforcement to describe anyone accused of assaulting a police officer. Interesting, how we’ve let this one go.

Over and over, my friend Herman Bell, who spent almost 45 years in New York State maximum-security prisons, has been called an animal. Herman was convicted in 1975 of killing two New York City police officers and sentenced to 25-to-life — meaning that, after 25 years, he was eligible for parole. Thanks to his accomplishments and compassion over the years; thanks to advances in state parole regulations weighing who a person has become and not just the “nature of the original offense”; thanks to enormous love from family and friends, Herman was released in April, after his eighth appearance before the Parole Board.

But this column isn’t about Herman. It’s instead about the institutions and the people who wanted him to die slowly over more decades in prison. As an animal.

When Herman’s parole decision came down last March, Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), declared at a press conference, “We’re gonna get you, we don’t care why you’re behind bars… We just care that you are behind bars.” The PBA also issued a “safety alert” to NYPD officers: “In the event of Bell’s release, all PBA members are urged to remain vigilant, both on- and off-duty, to ensure their own safety and to provide back-up to any other law enforcement officers in their vicinity.”

The danger to public safety posed by Herman Bell out of prison roughly approximates the danger posed by 99.6 percent of undocumented immigrants inside US borders: NONE.

The real danger — which most of us are sleeping on — is the vigilante mentality that powers our law enforcement. Since way before Stonewall, cops have rounded up queers; they can still arrest and brutalize us at street protests. But queer communities don’t necessarily see how the cops also work alongside the prison system. So here’s another safety alert; this one’s about the police.

Be on the lookout for:

Use of Scathing Pejoratives: Words like “monster,” “vermin,” “blood-thirsty,” and, of course, “animal” used by police as synonyms for actual people accused or convicted of crimes. This degree of loathing is designed to authorize the deepest kind of lynch-mob contempt. These names are, in fact, used so often to describe people of color that you wonder if they’re simply society’s latest ploy to get away with saying “n*gg*r.”

Lurid Press Coverage: This is the aorta through which “law-and-order” pejoratives and vigilantism enter the public bloodstream. Mainstream media repeat — unquestioned and un-fact-checked — whatever police officials tell them. “Cold-blooded cop-killer” headlines boost ratings. Meanwhile, the press is too busy buying tough-on-crime accounts wholesale to ask journalism-101 questions, such as why a law officer such as Pat Lynch threatening, “We’re gonna get you, we don’t care why you’re behind bars” isn’t … well … illegal?

Copying down “cop-killer” denunciations, reporters seldom bother to question if adjectives like “cold-blooded” and “monster” are close to accurate. NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, on hearing of Herman’s parole, wrote that Herman should remain in prison because, “His mind has not changed, his heart has not opened…” Mainstream news outlets never asked how James O’Neill knew this.

It’s inconsequential that O’Neill (also Lynch, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and any other official denouncing Herman’s parole) never met Herman Bell or evinced an interest in records describing how Herman’s changed over the years. This sidelining of journalistic curiosity in favor of garish headlines is the foundation of media and police collusion. Through it, we’re bullied out of wondering if “criminals” might actually be people a little like ourselves.

Backlash Against New Parole Board Regulations: In another press conference, Patrick Lynch lamented the “coup” at the State Parole Board, where “right-minded” commissioners were ousted and replaced by those with an agenda. Already, conservative state senators, who only noticed progressive regulation changes after Herman’s parole, have passed several bills overturning these advances.

Although the bills still need Assembly approval, they include regressions such as mandatory life sentences without parole for a broad range of offenses; requiring the Parole Board to accept statements from third parties — specifically, the police — which would remain confidential; and extending the waiting period between prisoners’ parole applications from two to five years.

These bills would enforce a penal structure denying mercy and equality to thousands of human beings who, for a moment, had hopes of not being seen as animals. Already, tabloids are carrying stories about why the Parole Board should not make the Herman Bell mistake and should deny parole to other “cop-killers.” Already, the PBA has bought radio ads to keep Herman’s co-defendant in prison for the rest of his life.

Assuming the Life of a Police Officer Weighs More than that of a Civilian: In a May 17 editorial titled, “Will every cop-killer in New York now go free?”, the New York Post writes, “cop-killers strike at the core of public safety. That’s why there was long a presumption against ever granting them parole.

But the PBA’S “public safety” means protection from “animals” — not protection for people like Eric Garner or Sandra Bland. It encourages a “worst-of-the-worst” category, which, once established, endangers everyone’s humanity. Recently, in The New Yorker, Masha Gessen wrote about the plight of immigrants and refugees, of Hannah Arendt’s concept of “the right to have rights.” These rights, in theory, “belong to every person by virtue of existence.”

So either we all have this right to have rights or we buy into a safety that ultimately removes our individual agency. Accepting that we don’t matter as much as the person in blue with the badge and the gun provides a cornerstone of an oncoming police state. And — remembering why Hannah Arendt wrote in the first place — that kind of thing has happened before.

This article appears at Gay City News/ http://gaycitynews.nyc/ along with others by Susie Day on parole justice and the case of Herman Bell.

 

Share

The Missing Piece to End Mass Incarceration in New York

Share

On February 12, the New York State Assembly announced a Criminal Justice Reform Package with some meaningful changes to New York’s criminal legal system on bail, discovery, speedy trial, and solitary confinement—important steps toward undoing the far-reaching damage of mass incarceration.

But a major element was missing: No bills on parole and elder release were included in the package. Mass incarceration in New York will never end unless the legislature and the governor initiate changes that get at the heart of the problem—the persistence of a racist culture of revenge and permanent punishment that keeps people in prison without meaningful access to release. Increasing parole releases, especially of older people who have served long terms for violent crimes, would be a step in this direction.

That may sound unlikely given that the prison population soared because politicians found it easy and popular to act “tough on crime.” The starting point? Increase punishment by pointing to people convicted of the most serious offenses—especially the crimes that make headlines. But now, we need policy makers to understand that what got us here won’t get us out.

To end mass incarceration, the legislature, the parole board, and the governor will need to end the cycle of permanent punishment. Releasing people who have spent decades in prison for a violent crime committed years ago, who have engaged in meaningful transformation and now pose minimal risk to public safety, would be a safe, cost-effective way to begin this process.

Here are some ways RAPP is urging them to do exactly that:

“Geriatric Parole:” Governor Cuomo has proposed legislation to expand New York’s medical parole program for incarcerated older people, instituting a medical parole plan for people age 55 and older with debilitating health conditions.

But the plan excludes some people based solely on the crime of conviction, such as anyone convicted of first-degree murder, no matter how ill or debilitated—and no matter how low the risk they pose to public safety. Engaging in a serious crime at a young age does not make an incapacitated elder a current threat to public safety. In fact, evidence shows that long-incarcerated elders convicted of murder actually pose the very lowest risk to public safety: in contrast to recidivism rates that generally hover in the 40% range, people in this group return to prison at rates around 1% and lower.

The governor’s exclusions should also make us question whether we want our society to deny compassion to whole sectors of people, guaranteeing that they will die in prison.

RAPP urges the governor and the legislature to strengthen the “geriatric parole” proposal by removing all restrictions based on crime of conviction, along with other language that allows the Parole Board to deny applicants solely because of the nature of the crime. The bill should also be strengthened to ensure that the medical criterion for eligibility is an individual’s ability to provide “self-care,” not “self-ambulation.” Finally, mechanisms that trigger and speed up the otherwise slow-moving certification process and ensure public transparency should be strengthened as well.

“If the Risk is Low, Let them Go”

The governor’s plan will shift rather than cut spending, especially as states, confronted with the Trump administration’s economic plans, will be forced to shoulder a larger proportion of spending on Medicaid and other public health costs.

What would truly save money—and promote public safety—would be real elder parole: a plan that presumptively releases people who have served more than their minimum terms and whose present—not past—behavior show that they pose little if any risk to public safety. Older people should be released before they are ill and dying, when they can still contribute to their families and communities. We urge the Assembly to pass A.7546, which ensures that an individual’s current risk to public safety determines parole release. Additionally, older people not otherwise eligible for parole should be given a “second look” and considered for parole at age 55 after serving at least 15 consecutive years in prison.

With older people now making up 21 percent of people in New York State prisons—10,337 total people, a number more than twice what it was in 2000— a bolder and more evidence-based proposal for elder parole should be the governor’s choice. Such a proposal will require Governor Cuomo to exercise political will and would make New York a true national leader in the struggle to end mass incarceration.

To get involved, check our events page or email nyrappcampaign@gmail.com

Share

A New Chapter in Parole for New York State?

Share

An Amsterdam News article, “Exposing the New York State Parole Board,” has an encouraging ending
(see two UPDATES at end of article)

The Amsterdam News, June 8, 2017
by The Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition

(See updates at end of article)

Over the past several years, there has been a great deal of examination and public outcry about mass incarceration and its damaging impact on poor and working-class Black/Brown families and communities. What hasn’t had as much outcry or examination is the covert murkiness, impunity and absolute authority in which the New York State Parole Board and its recalcitrant commissioners operate as judge, jury and executioner over the lives of thousands of incarcerated individuals and their families.

The New York State Parole Board should, by law, comprise 19 commissioners, all appointed by the governor. The current Board has only 12 commissioners. The absence of the other seven has created a backlog and resulted in parole appearances that consist of a 10-minute video conference before a three-person panel. Three of the current commissioners are holdovers from the George Pataki administration, a Republican whose policy agenda favored locking people up for life.

For an incarcerated man or woman to be parole eligible, the individual must undergo a “risk and needs assessment” performance test. This test is a readiness instrument that measures who they are today, their prison record, educational, psychological and sociological accomplishments, and what, if any, risk the individual poses for committing a new crime if released. When applied justly and appropriately, the risk and needs assessment offers an incarcerated individual a fair shot at release. The practice, however, is anything but. Instead, parole commissioners routinely and perniciously ignore the risk and needs assessment findings, and rubber stamp the denial of 80 percent of those who appear based on the “nature of the crime” and a bias that their release “would so deprecate the law.”

Over the past approximately two decades, these repeated parole denials have caused a 98 percent increase in the number of people over the age of 50 incarcerated in the NYS prison system. These are people who have been in prison for 25 or more years, and who according to the state’s own research, are the least likely to engage in recidivism. They are persistently denied parole by a Board that continues to re-sentence them 10, 15 and, in some cases, 24 years past the sentence imposed on them by the judge. More often than not, a parole denial comes with a “two-year hit,” which means they cannot appear again for another two years. New legislation, already approved in the Senate, is now being proposed to extend the two-year hit to a five-year hit. Readers can object to such an extension by calling their elected representatives in the New York State Assembly.

For thousands of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunties and uncles, sisters and brothers across this state, these encounters with the parole board turn an otherwise hopeful experience, full of the possibility of healing and renewal, into one of perpetual abuse, disappointment, separation, hopelessness, punishment and state violence.

How do we heal this trauma, violence and devastation inflicted on these families and communities by the mass incarceration and perpetual parole denial of their loved ones? We start by applying community and political pressure on Governor Cuomo to appoint commissioners who are educators, faith-based community leaders and social workers with an interest in reinvesting, rebuilding and rehabilitating the communities incarcerated people will return home to, and not the current practice of appointing current and former law enforcement (i.e., police officers, prosecutors or judges) personnel whose intent is to keep people in prison for life. We ask readers to petition Governor Cuomo not to reappoint commissioners James Ferguson, Kevin Ludlow, William Smith, Otis Cruse or Julie Smith. All of them have consistently demonstrated their refusal to follow the law and a blatant disregard for the communities in need of their loved ones return.

UPDATE #1

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

  • Of the five Commissioners whose terms expired this year only two were reappointed: Otis Cruse and William Smith. While we celebrate the fact that only two Commissioners were reappointed, it is unacceptable that the Governor and Senate re-appointed William Smith. Appointed by Gov Pataki, Smith has been on the Board for over 20 years and has a record of humiliating people and denying release to those who have served decades in prison, transformed their lives, and pose little or no risk to society.
  • Three Commissioners were NOT reappointed: Ferguson, Ludlow and Julie Smith. Ferguson and Ludlow were both Pataki appointees, and all three frequently disregarded the humanity of people in prison and violated the law.
  • Additionally, Parole Commissioner Lisa Elovich resigned from the Board, despite the fact that her term does not expire until 2019. Elovich was also a Pataki-era appointee. We believe as a result of your advocacy efforts and continued calls to the Governor’s office and legislature, she felt pressure to leave the Board. Now, only one Pataki-era appointee will remain on the Board by the end of the year.
  • Six new Parole Commissioners were appointed for the first time: Caryne Demosthenes, Carol Shapiro, Tana Agostini, Erik Berliner, Tyece Drake, and Charles Davis. While only time will tell whether these new appointees perform their duties correctly and justly, many of them more closely reflect the identities and experiences of people in prison, and come from a broader range of professional backgrounds.

OTHER VICTORIES

We defeated Lorraine’s Law (A2350A) in the Assembly (after it had passed the Senate as S2997-A): As many of you know, a devastating bill that increased the time between Parole Board hearings from 2 years to up to 5 years for people convicted of the most serious crimes had a lot of support in the legislature. However, as a result of your efforts, it was narrowly defeated.

Most importantly, we profoundly shaped the confirmation process of new Commissioners, exposed the many injustices and cronyism inherent in the process, educated our legislators about the impact of parole on our loved ones, and for the first time, garnered serious opposition on the Senate floor. In an unprecedented moment, Senators on the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee that confirms the appointments, voiced strong opposition to the reappointment of William Smith. The opposition continued onto the larger Senate floor, where Senators dissented and 19 people ultimately voted NO on Smith’s reappointment! Although not enough to defeat his reappointment, such a public rejection of a long-standing Commissioner suggests a new and dramatic shift in parole policy. For example, watch this short video of Senator Gustavo Rivera’s speech to the Senate on the purpose and practice of parole.

UPDATE #2

On September 27, 2017, the new Board of Parole regulations became available. While still far from what justice and good governance demand, these regulations do categorize risk and needs assessments as a “guiding principle” for release decisions, rather than as one on a list of “factors” to be considered.

Along with the newly appointed commissioners, the new regs could allow more incarcerated people to win release on parole, as their records and achievements mandate. BUT: It will take continuing pressure from the community to ensure that the new regs and the new commissioners are not just window dressing to make a cruel, unforgiving, and unjust parole system look less ugly.

 

UPDATE #3

On March 13, 2018, a widely respected elder, Herman Bell, was granted parole, having met all the criteria for release according to his sentence.  The parole commissioners recognized his progress after serving nearly 45 years in prison and granted his parole application.  He is looking forward to being reunited with his family and friends.  We welcome him home.

On March 19, 2018, responding to a solid week of attacks on the decision—and on Mr. Bell himself—by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and other law enforcement organizations, the New York Times wrote this editorial in favor of Mr. Bell’s release:

Don’t Let Parole Become a Meaningless Concept
by the New York Times Editorial Board

Some felt Herman Bell deserved execution or at least a prison sentence of life without parole, but in mid-1970s New York those weren’t options. No question, Mr. Bell’s crime was a despicable assault on society itself. In 1971, with fellow Black Liberation Army radicals, he ambushed two police officers in Harlem, repeatedly and fatally shooting them as part of a war they had declared on the United States.

Rather than being condemned to prison forever, Mr. Bell got 25 years to life. Now, at 70, and after more than 44 years behind bars, he has been granted parole by a New York State board, which found he had expressed “regret and remorse.” Long in coming though the statement was, he is said to have told board members this month: “There was nothing political about the act, as much as I thought at the time. It was murder and horribly wrong.” In mid-April, he could be freed from his maximum-security prison in the Hudson Valley.

Despite angry reactions from law enforcement groups and others, the process worked as it should if parole is to amount to more than an empty word. Our prisons call themselves “correctional facilities.” The New York board found that Mr. Bell had indeed been corrected, based on a solid disciplinary record, a “sturdy network of supporters” and a likelihood of his now leading a “law-abiding life.” To lock him up forever even though deemed a changed man is to make a mockery of his sentence: “25 years to life” is not supposed to be cynical code for “life.”

Parole is understandably fraught in cases of slain police officers. Emotions run high, as does posturing by the politically powerful. In New York, a notable example involves two women who were part of a leftist band that killed two police officers and a guard during a bungled robbery of a Brink’s armored car in 1981.

Though plainly guilty of involvement in the crime, neither of the women, Kathy Boudin and Judith Clark, fired a shot. They both went on to become model prisoners who expressed remorse for their actions. Ms. Boudin was paroled in 2003. But the road to freedom has been rockier for Ms. Clark, denied parole once again last year despite having had her sentence commuted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Bell case is a reminder of how brutal New York could be in the early 1970s, an era of supercharged racial and political hostilities. Mr. Bell’s victims, Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini, were among 12 police officers in the city shot to death in 1971. In contrast, it has taken the past 13 years to record 12 officer deaths. (The New York City police, too, are now far more restrained, fatally shooting eight criminal suspects in a typical year, compared with the 1971 toll of 93.)

Officer Piagentini’s widow, Diane, remains implacably opposed to freeing Mr. Bell. The parole board’s decision, she said, “devalues the life of my brave husband” and “betrayed the trust” of police families. But relatives of Officer Jones have been more forgiving. In a 2014 interviewwith The Daily News, Waverly Jones Jr. said, “This man has been in prison for over 30 years and hasn’t gotten into so much as an argument.” To continue to lock him up, Mr. Jones said, “would only be for revenge.”

He’s right. And vengeance is not supposed to guide a system of justice.

 

Take Action to Help Keep Advancing Parole Justice

Come to our meetings and get involved: Email us to learn more about joining our campaign and attending meetings in your area.

Attend a meeting of Challenging Incarceration. To find out when and where, email nyrappcampaign@gmail.com.

  • Capitol Region: CAAMI (Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration) has a Parole Watch team who attend every public Parole Board meeting. CAAMI’s work also extends far beyond parole. Email nycaami@gmail.com for more info.

THANK YOU!

Again, we want to thank you all for your powerful and persistent efforts these past few weeks. We are entering a new moment in the movement for parole justice. We have the attention of our legislators and Governor and we have each other!

Share

Former Commissioner: “Let Common Sense in, Let the Aging Out”

Share

By Barbara Treen, Retired NY Board of Parole Commissioner •

The disgrace of mass incarceration in the United States continues to be critically commented upon by academics, analysts, criminologist, practitioners, and providers. Still, with all the condemnation and forward-thinking formulas that would lead to warehousing fewer people, nothing has changed for the aged locked in by parole denials. I have a ‘best practice’ to suggest that would surely make a difference: common sense!

After a career in criminal justice, I am now a retiree of 12 years as a commissioner on the New York Parole Board. I now am an advocate for the aging and long-term incarcerated.  I follow the promises and the politics, the conferences announcing reform (bail, drug treatment, modifying stop-and-frisk) at the front door to prison, while the appeals to denials at the back door pile up in the office of the Parole Board’s counsel.

The new solutions are suggested in the language of regulations, guidelines, and policies attempting to legally employ humanity and change our culture of punishment. What about gut instinct? What would it take to convince the Board that an incarcerated person devoured by dementia, who can’t walk straight, should be released? What does it take to figure out that a crime committed by an 18-year-old should not stick to the transformed 62-year-old? What does it take to release an applicant meeting the board twenty or more years beyond what the court prescribed?

While decision-making has been shored up by guardrails, human behavior occurs through feelings. And this ingredient is what this Board needs to allow in their deliberations—and to recognize in others.

I realize that emotional decision-making is not professional and can go either way. But there is room within the guidelines and the written word to articulate what rules don’t spell out: sincerity, transformation, time, physical condition, or on the other hand suggestions of public risk. Is this not why we have people doing this job rather than computers tallying the score? And this is why we should abandon decisions made by camera rather than personal appearances. When I was on the Board and sitting at a business meeting, a most conservative colleague stood up and declared that we all used gut instinct as part of our reasoning (surely he believed that we were all behavioralists and not cops). There was a gasp followed by silence in the room. This was heresy and this was never spoken about again…until now.  Intuition is compatible with legalese; let in common sense and begin letting out the aging.

Barbara Hanson Treen, Comm (ret)
Author of “Geranium Justice” January 27, 2018

Note: a version of this article later appeared in the Albany Times-Union as “Let common sense in and let aged prisoners out,” January 31, 2018

Share

Join 160+ Groups to Support NY Parole Board Decision

Share

From Legal Action Center (LAC.org):

The undersigned join in strong support of the recent determination by the Parole Board to grant release to Mr. Herman Bell. This decision is the right outcome in this case based on the criteria used to determine parole. We must not allow politics to undermine the rule of law, nor should we discourage an agency from correctly performing its duties by allowing it to be bullied or cowed by the loudest voices and those with their own agendas.

The Parole Board, acting as an independent body and critical component of our criminal justice system, is charged with deciding whether an individual is ready for release and reentry. For far too long, parole determinations have been based solely on the nature of an individual’s past criminal behavior, rather than on remorse, rehabilitation, and a plan for successful reentry. This backward-looking approach ran counter to the purpose of parole, the goal of a safer and more just society, and to the rehabilitative aims of our criminal justice system. The September 2017 regulations approved by the Parole Board, by including factors related to the individual’s readiness for successful reentry, represent a critical course correction. These changes are essential to undoing the system of perpetual punishment and mass incarceration.

The Parole Board made its determination regarding Mr. Bell’s release with consideration to his past crime, the wishes of the victims’ families, and the substantive evidence of his rehabilitation during his nearly 50 years of incarceration. The board also took into account Mr. Bell’s very low risk of recidivism and the support of a broad network of individuals and community organizations. It also recognized that Mr. Bell has taken responsibility for his actions and demonstrated remorse.

We applaud the Parole Board for implementing the new regulations in Mr. Bell’s case and for having the courage to move towards the kind of transformational criminal justice reform that is needed. 

Organizations (click to add your organization or your name)

The Albany Social Justice Center, Inc
The City School, Inc.
The Correctional Association
The Distinguished Social Ventures Foundation
The Doe Fund
The FANG Collective
The Fortune Society
The Incarcerated Nation Corporation
The Legal Aid Society
The Real Cost of Prisons Project
The Sentencing Project
The Watershed Center
Abolitionist Law Center
Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
AFSC-Friend of a Friend
Alliance of Families for Justice
American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch
Anarchist Black Cross – NYC
Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC)
Bard Prison Initiative
Beacon Prison Action
Beyond the Box Initiative
Black & Pink
Black Lives Matter – Los Angeles
Black Lives Matter Brooklyn
Black Lives Matter Global Network
Bronx Defenders
Bronx Reentry Program
BronxConnect
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund
Brooklyn Defender Services
Brooklyn Law School National Lawyers Guild
Brownsville Think Tank Matters, Inc.
CADBI
Campaignetoendnewjimcrow-NY
Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration
Capital District Showing Up For Racial Justice
Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services
Center for Community Alternatives
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Employment Opportunities
Center for Family Representation
Center for Justice at Columbia University
Center for Political Education
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law
Central Vermont Showing Up for Racial Justice
Certain Days Collective
Chicago Torture Justice Memorials
Children’s Haven: A Place of Healing & Hope
Coalition For Parole Restoration
College and Community Fellowship
Common Fire Foundation
Common Justice
Community Service Society
Criminal Justice Caucus at Columbia School of Social Work
Critical Resistance
Diaspora Solidaria
EAC Network
End New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN)
End Solitary Santa Cruz County
Equality Equation
Exodus Transitional Community, Inc
Exponents, Inc.
Fellowship of Reconciliation USA
Freedom Archives
Freedom Food Alliance / Victory Bus Project
Freedom Socialist Party
Gangstas making Astronomical Community Changes Inc
Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice
Group 73 of Amnesty International, Ithaca, NY
Haiti Action Committee
Harlem Restoration Project, Inc.
Harvard Law School National Lawyer’s Guild
Hour Children
Housing Works
HousingPlus Solutions
Incarcerated Workers’ Organizing Committee – NYC
Initiative for Incarcerated Survivors of Gender Violence
Institute of the Black World 21st Century
Interference Archive
International Action Center
International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
John Brown Lives!
Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST)
JustLeadershipUSA
Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice
Labor-Religion Coalition of NYS
Law Firm of Siegel, Yee & Brunner
Legal Action Center
Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Liberation Literacy
LifeLines Project
Linke Fligl
Lynne Stewart Organization
Man Up Inc. USA
Milk Not Jails
Mission High School
Mobilization for Justice, Inc.
Mott Haven Reformed Church
NAMI Huntington
National Action Network Second Chance
National Boricua Human Rights Network
National Jericho
National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
Neighbors Together
New Abolitionist Movement
New york Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services Inc.
New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC)
New York City Jericho Movement
New York Civil Liberties Union
New York State Prisoner Justice Network
Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition
NYC Books through Bars
NYC Free Peltier
Osborne Association
Parole Justice – Albany
Parole Preparation Project
Police Reform Organizing Project
Prison Action Network
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College
Prisoners Are People Too, inc.
Puerto Rico on the Map
Race for Re-Entry
Rehabilitation Through The Arts
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
Religious society of Friends, Amawalk Meeting
Resistance in Brooklyn
Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised
Reuniting Families Contra Costa
Rise & Shine Community Services, Inc.
rock steady farm & flowers
Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow
Scuffletown Anti-Repression Committee
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) – NYC
Solidarity Research Center
Soul Fire Farm
ST. JAMES A.M.E. CHURCH
Struggle Committees Initiative
Students for Prison Education and Reform – Princeton University
SURJ Hudson
SURJ ROC (Showing Up for Racial Justice – Rochester
SURJ Westchester
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
TASC of the Captial District
Tightshift Laboring Cooperative
Trinity Lutheran Church, Rev. Samuel Cruz
University of San Francisco
Urban Justice Center
VOCAL-NY
Water Protector Legal Collective
WESPAC Foundation, Inc
West Town Law Office
White Pine Community Farm
Women and Justice Project
Women’s March
Women’s Prison Association
Youth Represent

Individuals; Elected Officials

Adrienne Hurley, Professor, McGill University
Albert Fermin
Alicia Garza, Co-founder, Black Lives Matter Global Network / principal, Black Futures Lab
Allison Guttu
Amaris
Amy Harlib
Anna Nathanson
Augustin Gonzalez
Betania Santos
Brad Hoylman, NYS Senate
Casper Burghgraeve
Chase Niesner
Colleen O’Connor
Connor
Curtis Austin, Associate Professor
Damaris Miller
Dan Quart, NYS Assemblymember
Dan Siegel, Civil Rights Attorney
Daniela Markowicz
Darren Mack, Social Justice Advocate
Darryl Nubyahn
Deborah Weissman
Dennis Derryck, Professor of Professional Practice
Diane Fujino
Donna M Accettulli
Dr. Libby Lewis, Pan African Studies Department, Assistant Professor
Dr. Stacey Ault
Five Mualimmak
Gene Washington
George Cammarota
George Guerci
Gregory Jean
Harriet Plewis
Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of History
Herb Sturz
Jane Alpert
Jared Ware
Joel van de Sande
Julie Ruben
Karen Palmer
Karen Shain
Kassandra Frederique
Katie Hammond
Kelsey De Avila
Kelsey Wright
Kevin Parker, NYS Senate
Kirsten Gill
Laura McTighe
Laura Whitehorn
Lisa Roth
Louise Kuhn
Luis Sepulveda, NYS Assemblyman
Lynne Karsten
Manuel la Fontaine
Mary Brey
Mary Patten, Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Matthew Kennedy
Mechthild Nagel, Professor of Philosophy, SUNY Cortland
Mic
Michelle Chen
Michelle Spark, The National Buddhist Prison Sangha, Senior Advisor
Nana Gyamfi, Adjunct Professor, Pan African Studies Department
Nando Rodriguez
Natacha Robert
Nathalie Cohen
Nicole Johnson
Nora Butler Burke
Pete White
Pirette McKamey
Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell
Professor Marsha Weissman, Adjunct Professor, Sociology, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Professor Staci Mitchell
Professor Tony Thompson, NYU School of Law
Rev. Danilo LaChapel
Robin Kelley, Professor
Ruth Saxelby
Sam Bowman
Sara Black
Sarah Zeller-Berkman
Shabaka R Shakur
Shelley Lane
Shirene E
Sivan Amar
Sumayya Kassamali
Susan Horn
Susan Reverby, Emerita Professor
Susan Rosenberg
Susie Day
T’ai Rising-Moore
Tamika Graham, BPI TASC Teacher Fellow
Theresa Michell
Tiana Reid
Tim Barkert
Toni Hellmann
Valerie Forero
Vanda Seward
Victor Wallis
Zakia Henderson-Brown
Zoe Samudzi

If your organization wishes to be included as a signatory, please click here. We will continue to update this list.

 

Share

Governor Cuomo Proposes “Geriatric Parole.” RAPP Responds.

Share

The Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign believes that Governor Cuomo’s calls to reform New York’s criminal legal system are only a baby step in the right direction. While we acknowledge his proposal to expand medical parole for incarcerated older people with debilitating health conditions (his “geriatric parole” bill), his proposal has serious flaws. Medical parole is a rarely used, limited, and at times exclusionary program that has led far too many people who pose no risk to public safety to die in prison of illnesses that could otherwise be adequately and safely cared for in the community. The governor’s bill still excludes whole groups of incarcerated people only because of the crime for which they were convicted. While we hope that the governor’s proposal promotes the release of more older people, including those with chronic, hard-to-manage conditions, and is a catalyst for the expanded use of medical parole for all eligible people, it must be amended if it is to be truly effective—and just.

In addition, the governor’s proposal only affects sick people. While some incarcerated older people are sick, many others aren’t. Their wellness should not limit opportunities for release. Older people should not have to become ill in order to be considered worthy of returning home. People should be able to come home before they’re stricken with a debilitating illness. As the crisis of older people in prison continues to worsen and the population of older people has reached an all-time high of 10,337 people—more than 20 percent of the entire state prison population—much more is needed to end the mass incarceration of older people in New York.

RAPP believes that the Parole Board should presumptively release all parole-eligible older people, unless there is clear evidence that they pose a current risk to public safety. If the Parole Board is unwilling to do this on their own, then the governor and legislature should legislate this change. That is why we support and urge the legislature to pass Assembly Bill A7546, which would ensure that people who pose little if any risk to public safety be released on parole.

We also believe that older people who are not parole-eligible, serving prison terms that amount to death sentences, should be given a “second look”—an opportunity for  parole consideration. Such sentences were draconian and flawed to begin with, and pose no benefits to public safety.So we urge the passage of an assembly bill that would give people who are 55 or older and have served at least 15 years a shot at parole.

RAPP’s priorities require political will from the governor and all branches of state government across the political spectrum. We hope that he listens to the statewide community of formerly incarcerated leaders, families, and concerned New Yorkers who seek peace and justice. Taking meaningful and expanded action to release older people in prison will prevent death, despair, aging, and illness behind bars, and under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, make New York a true leader in the struggle to end mass incarceration.

Cover photo by RAPP member Dan Rous

Join us to push for release of older people from New York prisons—a big step towards ending mass incarceration. See RAPPCampaign.com/about and RAPPCampaign.com/events for ways to get with us. Follow us on Twitter: @RAPPCampaign

Share

New York Needs Elder Parole: Prison Healthcare Hearing

Share

On Monday, October 30, 2017, Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP presented testimony at a legislative hearing on healthcare in the New York State prison system. Two New York Assembly Committees—Health and Correction—hosted the hearing, which was titled, “Healthcare in Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) prisons.”

RAPP was pleased as much of the day’s conversation focused on the increasingly urgent issue of older people in prison. This conversation began when Assembly Member David Weprin, Chair of the Correction Committee, asked DOCCS Acting Commissioner Anthony Annucci what he thought were the biggest barriers to healthcare in DOCCS. The Commissioner responded by saying that the aging prison population is the number one barrier to supporting the healthcare needs of those in custody.

Assembly Member Weprin also took the important step of asking the Commissioner the age at which he and the Department begin defining people as older. The Commissioner and his Chief Medical Officer both responded, age 55. Although RAPP defines incarcerated older people as those who are 50 and older, we agree with the Commissioner that people in prison age at a faster pace than those in healthier environments, and as a result have an internal, physiological clock that is 10-15 years accelerated.

Both RAPP and the Osborne Association spent nearly all of their presented testimony on the subject of incarcerated older people, and both publicly stated that older people should be presumptively released on parole. Throughout the hearing, Assembly Member Weprin indicated that he is interested in taking major steps to promote the release of incarcerated older people. He is currently the lead sponsor of several bills on the topic.

While RAPP believes that everyone in DOCCS custody should receive the healthcare they deserve and are constitutionally required to receive, we challenge the legislature to prioritize presumptively releasing older people aged 50 or older who have served at least 15 years in prison. Releasing older people who fit this criterion would save lives, reconnect families and communities, and reduce the high financial costs (both financial and moral) associated with keeping aging people in prison. It is time for New York State to champion policies that promote the release of our elders and save all of us from unneeded death and despair. —Dave George, RAPP

Watch Dave George’s testimony at the hearing

Read the testimony RAPP submitted to the hearing

Watch the entire hearing, where others—including David Weprin, chair of the Assembly Committee on Correction—spoke in favor of parole for older incarcerated people, and where DOCCS Acting Commissioner says that aging is the top challenge to prison healthcare in New York.

Share

Attend our monthly meetings!

First Weds. of each month.
6:00-8:15 pm
See our events page for location
• Pizza, soda and meeting
• For more information: nyRAPPcampaign@gmail.com

See Us on Social Media

CONTACT US

RAPP, c/o Correctional Assoc. of NY, 22 Cortlandt Street, 33rd Fl., New York, NY 10007 • (646) 793-9082 X 1014; info@rappcampaign.com

RECENT BLOG POSTS