What parolees deserve
With the breath of a progressive Democratic primary rival on his back, Gov. Cuomo sprinted to return voting rights to 35,000 paroled felons and those to come, through a jerryrigged, cumbersome executive process — partial pardons for each and every individual — that may or may not withstand legal scrutiny.
If the gambit works, New York will become the 19th state to let parolees vote, restoring one central citizenship right to people who are still paying their debt to society.
Imprisoned felons shouldn’t get to vote. Former felons who’ve done all their time, in prison and out, should get the right back, as Virginia recently acknowledged and Florida may well affirm in a referendum this year.
The parole period — when behavior is monitored and restricted but many basic liberties are enjoyed, based on the judgment that an individual has demonstrated remorse and personal growth — is a judgment call. We support the move as a gateway to civic life for those who’d toppled off the edge and need to find a foothold back.
Still, it sure stings that this is, at least for now, the best that New York State can do for a postprison population that’s struggling to reenter society in ways far more meaningful than visiting the polling place every few years, as some fraction of them are likely to do.
Exercising the franchise is generally not the first thing, or fifth, on the minds of those who’ve left prison on parole — who, despite some strides by the state to lift barriers to employment and education, are too often flunking at reintegration.
A sobering report in January from Columbia University’s Justice Lab noted that for every 10 New York parolees who complete their terms without incident, another nine will end up back behind bars. That’s a failure rate far higher than the national average.
It’s not because most are committing fresh crimes — recidivism is down — but because they get caught tripping on prohibitions that could range from drug use to missing mental health appointments to associating with felons to leaving the state.
Not all violations are created equal; some are technicalities, while others should legitimately trigger reincarceration.
Even while city jails’ population has plunged, Rikers Island holds 15% more of these failed parolees now than it did four years ago. It sure can’t help that parole officers are discharging their clients by the hundreds to city homeless shelters.
When he announced the voting rights restoration at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Cuomo got an ovation. Hold your applause; there’s tougher work ahead.