A call for parole system overhaul
Victims’ rights groups, inmate advocates say status quo not geared to stem violent crime
ALBANY — Survivors of violent crimes stood side-by-side with former inmates at the Capitol on Tuesday to push again for an overhaul of the state’s parole system, which advocates said has unfairly pitted victims against people who commit crimes — especially in a time of renewed political agitation about public safety.
The movement to change how the state grants parole, part of a broader set of progressive criminal justice measures, has long been championed by advocates and many Democratic lawmakers. The “Fair and Timely Act” bill would broaden the criteria used to determine whether an individual should be granted parole, while an “Elder Parole” bill would ensure that an inmate over 55 or an inmate who has served at least 15 years in prison would be automatically granted a parole hearing despite the severity of their initial conviction. Both have been introduced in prior legislative sessions, yet failed to reach the floor of either chamber.
The parole system has not received as much attention as other public safety measures, including changes to bail statutes, that are expected to be a focus in negotiations as Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers begin hammering out their combined budget priorities over the next six weeks.
But lawmakers behind legislation to overhaul the parole system said Tuesday that they view the issue as the tail end of a criminal justice system that has had documented and embedded racial disparities, causing communities of color to suffer from increased policing and harsher sentencing.
A Times Union analysis of discretionary parole hearings over a two-year span ending in 2020 found Board of Parole commissioners granted parole to 41 percent of white individuals, compared to 34 percent of Black people and 33 percent of Hispanic people.
Many of those incarcerated are older, even as New York’s overall prison population has declined. The campaign Release Aging People in Prison says there are 4,704 inmates in New York prisons over 55. And nearly 25 percent of the state’s 30,000 inmates are serving life sentences.
“Thousands of New Yorkers are languishing behind bars, dying behind bars, yet Albany refuses to act. We need to change that this session,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-sigal, a Manhattan Democrat who is sponsoring the Elder Parole bill. “This is about the love for our communities, families ... the belief you should not be judged by the worst thing you did.”
Older people have significantly lower risks of criminal behavior, nationwide research has found. Advocates also say that inmates have years of growth and reflection as they age inside correctional facilities.
“We’re talking about a population that is least likely to ever commit a crime,” said Jose Saldana, the director of the Release Aging People in Prison campaign, during a Legislative budget hearing last week. “I go by what men have done during years, decades of incarceration, for themselves and others. That is the measure of who they are.”
When the bills came before a Senate committee in December, several lawmakers questioned advocates about the rights of the victims who had been affected by crimes, expressing concern that justice would not be complete should perpetrators be released early.
But advocates on Tuesday pushed back against that messaging with a purposeful show of solidarity between victims’ rights organizations and those who support loosening restrictions for inmates to receive parole.
Locked for years in an abusive relationship, Anisah Sabur was sentenced to prison when she fought back. Just three years ago, her nephew was killed by gun violence.
But Sabur, a New York City resident who spent years bouncing around several correctional facilities in upstate New York, said Tuesday that those incidents have strengthened her belief that the criminal justice system she experienced is not fundamentally geared toward reducing violent crime.
“For us as victims and for us as formerly incarcerated people, we believe it’s our turn now to really show the community that we are people who are redeemed,” Sabur said. “We are sorry for what we’ve done, and this is what we’re doing to give back to our communities.”