Formerly incarcerated and fighting for prison reform
By: Tim Murphy, NY Nonprofit Media: Jose Hamza Saldana, director of Release Aging People in Prison, in a conversation with New York Nonprofit Media, discusses how to effect change in the face of an Albany scared of seeming soft on crime.
NY takes strides in clemency reform as Hochul grants 13 pardons and commutation
By: Rob Abruzzese, Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Gov. Kathy Hochul granted clemency to 13 individuals last week, a move she claims underscores her commitment to rethinking and reforming the clemency process…
Opinion: Looking at Women’s Equality Day from behind bars
By: Serena Martin-Liguori, New York Nonprofit Media: Women are the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population, and along with gender-expansive people, often punished more harshly than others in prison.
Opinion Letter: Compassionate Release for Those Aging Behind Bars
By: Carol Shapiro, New York Times: As a former parole commissioner, I know that dementia is just the tip of the iceberg of the problem of mass aging behind bars….
Nonprofit mission: ‘A furnished apartment makes someone feel human’
By: Tim Murphy, NYN Media: How a used couch and other pieces of second-hand furniture have gone a long way for a nonprofit in helping those coming directly out of the prison and the shelter systems
In Brutal Summer Heat, Prisoners Say Their Cells Are Like “Stifling Hot Coffins”
By: Victoria Law, Truthout – Shortly after midnight this past Friday, guards found 37-year-old Elizabeth Hagerty dead in her un-air-conditioned Texas prison cell. The day before, temperatures had reached nearly 100 degrees…
State Assembly headed back next week to discuss short-term rentals, elder parole
By: Maury Thompson, The Post-Star – …The ”elder parole” legislation, which has not passed the Senate, would require the Parole Board to conduct a hearing for all incarcerated individuals age 55 and over who have completed at least 15 years of their sentences.
Incarceration bills give older prisoners second chance in New York
By: Eric Harvey, The Riverdale Press – Two incarceration-focused bills have advanced to the New York State Assembly Correction Committee. The elder parole legislation has been co-sponsored by 31 people, including state Sens. Gustavo Rivera and Robert Jackson….