Relates to findings of the state board of parole necessary for discretionary release of incarcerated individuals on parole

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic100

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Julia Salazar says this is needed

The current decision-making process in the Board of Parole does not properly serve the goals of rehabilitation and community safety. This bill would establish fair procedures for determining whether to release an individual eligible for release, offer proper recognition for rehabi- litative work of incarcerated individuals, enhance community safety, reduce racial disparities in release rates, and would have a significant positive fiscal impact on New York State. When deciding whether to release an incarcerated person to community supervision, the Board of Parole currently is required to consider the person's likelihood of committing future crimes upon release and to determine whether the person's release would "deprecate the seriousness of the crime." In practice, this provision results in the Board rarely releasing individuals on their first appearance if the underlying crime was violent, even if it took place many years prior to the Board appear- ance and even when the person has a low risk of reoffending. This practice of not releasing individuals who can, in fact, be released to the community with no risk to community safety, also results in a significant racial disparity. According to a November 2024 report by The Center on Race Inequality & The Law at NYU Law School, parole release data from the last three years show the widest gap in release rate racial disparities since the state began collecting this data in 2016. According to their findings, there would have been thousands of addi- tional grants of release of people of color if release rates for people of color matched those of white people. This stark racial disparity was present even after controlling for variables such as prior offenses and seriousness of the underlying crime of conviction. (1) Current law also makes the board susceptible to political pressure to deny parole to incarcerated individuals with high profile crimes. Even if they are thoroughly rehabilitated with excellent prison records 60% of incarcerated individuals are denied release by the Parole Board, and 90% of denials are due to the nature of the original crime (2), minimiz- ing any efforts, growth, and rehabilitation that may have occurred over years of incarceration. The Board's failure to grant parole to low risk incarcerated individuals results in expensive, prolonged, and unnecessary incarceration of middle aged and older incarcerated individuals who have a very low probability of recidivism, costing the state between $100,000 to $240,000 per year, per person, in comparison to $60,000 per year for a younger incarcerated individual (3), according to the People's Campaign for Parole Justice. According to the New York State Comptroller's Office, the number of older individuals has continued to increase, more than doubling from 2008 to 2021. (4) This bill would require the Board of Parole to release people to commu- nity supervision when their minimum period of incarceration has been served, unless there is a clearly articulated current public safety reason to keep them in prison. There would be a presumption of release unless the Board determines by a preponderance of evidence that an incarcerated individual is unlikely to live without violating the law and that their release poses an unreasonable public safety risk. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RACIAL JUSTICE IMPACT As noted above, there is a clear and stark racial disparity in rates of release of parole in New York. The denial of parole to thousands of individuals who--but for the race-based disparity would have been home with their families and in their communities-creates and enlarges the harm already caused by lengthy periods of incarceration. This harm is more keenly experienced by communities of color in New York State. In December 2022 the Senate held a Public Hearing to solicit public opinion on this bill. With in-person testimony and more than 60 written testimony submissions, from directly impacted individuals and families, survivors of crim

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.