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You are here: Home / Archives for Aging People in Prison

December 9, 2019

End death by incarceration & advance parole justice—Join us on April 21

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RSVP HERE to be part of a powerful movement to end the cruelty of permanent punishment.

• Photos: Walter Hergt • Here’s how it looked last time we gathered in Albany (on January 14, 2020) demanding that our elected officials end death by incarceration and advance parole justice. RAPP, the Parole Preparation Project and hundreds of others from across New York State mounted a Day of Action to pass Elder Parole (S.2144) and Fair and Timely Parole Act (S.497A). We marched, rallied, and met with dozens of New York State elected officials. Go to our Press page to read what the media had to say about the rally and the issues.

NOW WE’RE GOING BACK TWICE AS STRONG, and we need you to RSVP here to join us on April 21

WHY: New York State has the eighth highest rate of people serving a life sentence in the country—roughly 9,200 people. More than 1,000 of them are serving Life Without Parole or virtual life without parole—with a minimum sentence of 50 years—sentences. 75 percent are People of Color.

Long and life sentences combined with few opportunities for release have created a crisis of aging, sickness and death in New York State prisons. There are now more than 10,000 people in NYS prisons—20% of the prison population—aged 50 or older; most are Black and Latinx. While the prison population in NYS fell by 27% between 2000 and 2016, the number of incarcerated older people more than doubled. Older people, especially those who have been convicted of the most serious crimes, pose little if any risk to public safety. In fact, when released, many formerly incarcerated older people engage in work that enhances public safety and community health.

To begin to scale back long and life sentences in New York State, promote the release of long-serving incarcerated older people, and reunite families and communities, New Yorkers across the state are pushing for two pending legislative initiatives:

  • Fair & Timely Parole (S.497A): A bill that would change the parole release process in New York State ensure that people are evaluated for release based on who they are today and not their crime of conviction.
  • Elder Parole (S.2144): A bill that would allow people aged 55 or older who have served 15 or more years in prison a chance at release, regardless of their sentence or crime of conviction.

Both these bills made some progress in the 2019 state legislative session, but never made it to the floor for a vote. That’s why we need to be up in Albany at the beginning of the new 2020 legislative session. Come with us to keep fighting for justice on April 21—and be part of the solution. RSVP HERE

MORE: Read more here about these bills and why we need them.

At Albany Capitol on January 14, 2020

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Filed Under: article, slideshow Tagged With: advocacy for elders, aging behind bars, aging in prison, Aging People in Prison, elder parole, incarcerated elders, life sentences, parole board, Parole Justice

November 25, 2019

Article Highlights Parole Injustices: Why We Need Change

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In their December 2, 2019 issue, The New Yorker magazine published “Prepping for Parole,” a 10,000-word article by Jennifer Gonnerman exposing some of the devastating problems with the New York State Parole Board. While we, the Parole Preparation Project, and so many others have pushed the Board to release more people from prison in recent years, they still continue to deny freedom to thousands of New Yorkers in prison and their families, and communities across New York State.

The article featured the incredible work our partners at Parole Prep do with currently incarcerated people serving parole-eligible life sentences. It also featured RAPP Director, Jose Saldana, RAPP co-founder Kathy Boudin, and the devastating story of Richard Lloyd Dennis, a currently incarcerated elder who the Parole Board has denied release to 13 times.


Richard Lloyd Dennis, currently incarcerated elder New Yorker. Photo courtesy of the New Yorker Magazine

“In May 2018, Dennis had been imprisoned longer than all but nine other men in New York State. If he had been convicted of killing anyone but a police officer, he likely would have been set free. Dennis appeared before the parole board for the thirteenth time on August 27th, 2019. Two days later, [Dennis’s Parole Preparation Project volunteer received the news], ‘He was denied.'”
This article helps tell the world what so many incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones have known for years: That the Parole Board still promotes a system of vengeance and punishment that fails to acknowledge peoples’ transformations behind bars. It’s another reminder of how urgent it is that New York State end life imprisonment and promote parole justice.  It’s another reminder of why we need the legislature to pass Fair and Timely Parole (S.497A). It’s another reason why we need you to join us for two events to fight for parole justice:  Tuesday, November 26, 12:30 pm, Foley Square – Rally to reunite families, promote parole justice, and bring hope for the holidays
And Tuesday, January 14, 2020, Albany – Mobilize to end death by incarceration and bring them home! March, rally, meet with elected officials, fight for parole justice
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Filed Under: article, slideshow Tagged With: aging behind bars, Aging People in Prison, death by incarceration, elder incarcerated, New York State Parole Board, Parole Justice

October 21, 2018

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

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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.

NEW: Tell us about what your friend or family member has experienced facing the parole board. RAPP and Parole Preparation Project now have an online form and will be gathering these stories.

Support RAPP’s work: Donate to our online fundraiser

Check our events page for ways to get involved

 

 

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Filed Under: article, slideshow Tagged With: Aging People in Prison, elder parole, geriatric parole, geriatric prisoners, Parole Justice, parole New York State

May 22, 2018

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

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• 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.

 

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Filed Under: article, slideshow Tagged With: Aging, aging in prison, Aging People in Prison, aging prison population, elder parole, elders, Herman Bell, older incarcerated, older prisoners, parole, Parole Justice

May 3, 2017

VIDEO: RAPP Members Testify at NYS Parole Board Business Meeting; Albany, April 24, 2017

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On Monday April 24,2017, RAPP members and other advocates challenged the New York State Parole Board to release greater numbers of people who have served long sentences.

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Filed Under: article, multimedia, slideshow Tagged With: Aging People in Prison, elders, New York State Parole Board, parole, RAPP

January 3, 2017

New York Times editorial: “Why Keep the Old and Sick Behind Bars?”

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By the New York Times Editorial Board, January 3, 2017

Anyone who visits a prison these days might be shocked to see what looks more like a nursing home with bars and metal detectors. Prisoners put away years ago under the wave of draconian sentencing are now turning gray and frail, suffering from heart disease and hypertension and feeling the effects of Alzheimer’s and other age-related illnesses.

Corrections officials once thought they had time to prepare for this, but something unexpected happened. Federal data shows that prison inmates age more rapidly than people on the outside — because of stress, poor diet and lack of medical care — so much so that their infirmities qualify them as “elderly” at the age of 50.

This problem is overwhelming the state and federal prison systems’ ability to manage it. And unless prisons adopt a common-sense approach of releasing older inmates who present no danger to the public, this costly group could soon account for a full third of the population behind bars.

Granting early release to sick, elderly inmates with families who want to care for them would be the humane thing to do. But it also makes good policy sense, given that they are far less likely than the young to commit new crimes. For example, a 2012 study by the American Civil Liberties Union documented that criminal activity drops sharply as people age. In New York, the study found, just 4 percent of prisoners 65 or older return to prison with a new conviction within three years of release; only 7 percent of those who are 50 to 64 do so. In contrast, 16 percent of those 49 or younger return.

A 2015 report on the federal prison system published by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General offers a sense of what managing aging inmates will cost if compassionate-release programs aren’t expanded. Older prisoners are already more expensive than younger ones; treating the sick is more costly in prisons. The costs will grow as prisons are forced to hire more and more people to help elderly inmates feed, bathe and dress themselves or to escort them on trips to see medical specialists. Some elderly inmates will also require costly infrastructure improvements, like elevators and wheelchair-accessible cells, bathrooms and passageways.

The inspector general’s report also found that the re-arrest rate for older inmates was relatively low compared with the rate for young inmates and said that many older inmates were good candidates for early release. But federal policies “limit the number of aging inmates who can be considered for early release and, as a result, few are actually released early,” the report explained. This problem is echoed at the state level, where eligibility for compassionate release is so strictly defined that parole boards almost never consider granting it.

Prisons, of course, cannot release people based solely on age. But the states and federal government can expand medical parole programs under which far too few terminally ill and physically disabled people are now released. In addition, parole boards across the country can screen older inmates for release using widely accepted measures to determine whether or not the inmate poses a risk. The best answer for the future is for state legislatures to keep moving away from the disproportionately harsh sentencing laws that brought us to this point in the first place.

A version of this editorial appears in print on January 3, 2017, on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Keep the Old and Sick Behind Bars?

RAPP adds: In New York State, the parole board must release more of the 10,140 incarcerated people aged 50 and older. Since 2000, this population has grown by 98%, creating a human rights nightmare and wasting public resources. Justice and common sense demand, if the risk is low, let them go.

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Filed Under: article, press, slideshow Tagged With: Aging People in Prison, aging prisoners, elders, incarcerated elders, medical parole, New York Times, older prisoners, parole, prison healthcare, sick prisoners, terminally ill

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