RAPP Campaign

Release Aging People in Prison Campaign

Release Aging People in Prison

Legal Team of Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal Appeals to the UN for Support

Renée Feltz, Truthout — World-renowned political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is 72 years old, suffering multiple health problems, and may die in prison, say legal advocates in a new request they filed today that asks the United Nations to support his release. Abu-Jamal’s legal team decided to appeal to the UN after having exhausted nearly every legal avenue for relief available in the United States. ¶ Abu-Jamal was a Black Panther and journalist when he was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and he has always maintained his innocence. His death sentence was overturned in 2001, and in 2011, Pennsylvania resentenced him to life without parole. Since then, “each attempt to secure Mr. Abu-Jamal a new and fair trial has been rejected,” argues a submission his lawyer Bret Grote and others made on his behalf to the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention....

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Hochul grants 19 pardons

Johan Sheridan, WWLP-22News — NY Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned 19 formerly incarcerated individuals, but faced criticism from criminal justice advocates for not commuting the sentences of anyone currently incarcerated, especially women in honor of Mother's Day. As of May 2026, the state's prison system houses 34,066 inmates, and prison reformers are raising alarms about increasing deaths within state prison facilities....

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New York Parole Bills Over Early Release of Aging Inmates Trigger Sharp Divide: ‘We Will Fight Tooth and Nail’

Front Page Detective Staff, Front Page Detectives — Two proposed New York bills have led to a divide among lawmakers and experts. The state is planning to introduce the Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole legislation to ease parole eligibility requirements for the aging prison population...

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Prison reformers want more accountability at DOCCS

Johan Sheridan / NEWS10-Nexstar — A coalition of advocacy groups has accused New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) of ongoing staff violence and systematic violations of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Law (HALT Act). The groups cited several deaths in state-run prisons, including the 2022 waterboarding death of Ladale Kennedy at Upstate Correctional Facility and the 2024 beating and death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility. The coalition also condemned visitation restrictions and a ban on family care packages...

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Why aging in NYS prisons is becoming more commonplace

Tandy Lau / NY Amsterdam News — Last month, Greg Mingo, a formerly incarcerated activist, was enlisted to advocate for Morris Grady, who, at age 71, was serving a sentence in Ulster County’s Eastern Correctional Facility. He immediately agreed to pen a letter, but Grady died a day later. “[His wife] asked me Thursday, and he passed away Friday,” recalled Mingo...

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Aging Prisoners in New York Cost State Millions Despite Low Reoffense Rates

Owen Young / Vanguard — (ALBANY, N.Y.) New York State spent a record $450.6 million on prison healthcare in 2025, according to a February report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, even as the aging incarcerated population driving these costs reoffends at some of the lowest rates in the system and continues to be denied parole at increasing rates...

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Hochul faces calls to fire NY corrections chief

Nexstar Media, Inc. — ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Criminal justice advocates rallied at the state Capitol Thursday, accusing Governor Kathy Hochul of hypocrisy for demanding federal accountability while ignoring deaths in New York state prisons. While they demonstrated outside her office, Daniel Martuscello III, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, testified down the hall before the legislature at a budget hearing on public protection...

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