RAPP Campaign
Release Aging People in Prison Campaign
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.
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....
By: Katie Engelhart, New York Times: At Federal Medical Center Devens, a federal prison in Massachusetts, there is a prisoner who thinks he is a warden. “I’m the boss. I’m going to fire you,” Victor Orena, who is 89, will tell the prison staff....
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...
By: David Lombardo, The Capitol Pressroom - 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....
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.
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....
By: Victoria Law The Nation - One day after New York Focus broke the story about the censorship policy, the state department announced that it would suspend the rule impeding creative endeavors in prisons
By: Times Union Editorial Board, Times Union - Ending the secrecy surrounding lobbying on judgeships should be among the more urgent business as the Legislature prepares to wrap up its session this week.
By: Shantel Destra, City & State NY - ... criminal justice advocates have pushed for the passage of two popular parole reform bills. The Elder Parole bill would make older people who have already served more than 15 years in prison eligible for parole, while the Fair & Timely Parole bill would direct parole boards to consider evidence of people’s rehabilitation, not just the severity of their original crimes...
By: David Weprin, Queens Daily Eagle - "What is critically important to acknowledge is that our correctional system is meant to "correct" -- not to "punish" -- those inside the walls. And it is my belief, from hundreds of conversations, that the vast majority of incarcerated individuals are remorseful, have accepted responsibility for their mistakes, and are willing to do the rehabilitative work it takes to return to their communities..."
By: Graham Rayman, New York Daily News - During the first four months of 2023, the state Parole Board released 45% of white prisoners who appeared before it, compared to 32.4% of all people of color who had hearings, researchers at NYU Law’s Center on Race, Inequality and the Law and the Vera Institute found...
