Reforming parole yields win-win
With this week’s passage of a massive federal stimulus package, it looks as though New York State may be spared the multi-billion-dollar deficit that was looming, and the attendant hard decisions around public spending. But the wisest possible use of tax dollars is always imperative. We see the possibility for a rare win-win through implementation of new parole reforms that could save hundreds of millions of dollars, reduce racial injustice, and improve outcomes for people coming home from prison.
New York spends billions operating prisons and jails with disappointing public safety benefits and severe racial inequities. Our state sends more people back to prison for technical parole violations — things like missing appointments or staying out past curfew — than any other state. Four out of ten people entering New York prisons do so for violating parole, not a new conviction. Prior to the pandemic, people incarcerated for technical violations were the only population increasing on the notorious Rikers Island that elected officials and advocates agree needs to be shuttered.
This is a costly and ineffective way to improve safety and help people succeed after prison — the two purposes of parole. Our just-released research found that, in 2019, New York spent at least $319 million incarcerating people for parole violations. Before people are returned to state prison for violations, they are incarcerated in local jails awaiting parole hearings, with no opportunity for pre-hearing release, at an additional cost of $365 million — a price borne entirely by county and city taxpayers. All told, state, city, and county taxpayers spent more than $680 million in 2019 to incarcerate people for parole rule violations.
The cost of preserving the status quo goes well beyond fiscal concerns. Our state’s parole system is reflective of the racial injustices and social inequities that led to mass demonstrations over the past year. Black and Latinx people are significantly more likely than whites to be under supervision, jailed pending a violation hearing, and incarcerated in state prisons for a parole violation. In New York City, Black and Latinx people are 12 and four times as likely to be jailed, respectively, for technical violations. The first two people to die from COVID-19 in Rikers Island, Raymond Rivera and Michael Tyson, were two men of color incarcerated for technical parole violations: leaving a drug program without permission and missing appointments, respectively.
Fortunately, legislators have an opportunity right now to correct this situation. The Less Is More Act, sponsored by state Sen. Brian Benjamin and Assemblymember Phara
Forrest, would reduce the types of technical violations for which people could be incarcerated, and how long they could be locked up for violations. Less Is More would allow people to remain living and working in the community while they resolve charges of technical parole violations. And it would provide incentives for good behavior on parole, reducing supervision terms by 30 days for every 30 days someone remains violation-free. This legislation could be passed on its own, or as part of the budget at the end of March.
There is strong evidence that reforms like Less Is More would save money, advance justice, and protect public safety. Traditionally conservative “red” states like Louisiana, Missouri, and South Carolina have enacted parole reforms that reduced the number of people under community supervision, saved money, and saw no increases in crime. In New York City, as probation commissioner, one of the authors safely reduced probation violations by nearly half and increased early discharges five-fold. There is no research that suggests that incarcerating people for non-criminal rule violations improves public safety. We do have plenty of experience showing that it disrupts lives and wastes money.
Data like these led a diverse New York State Bar Association commission to conclude that incarcerating people for technical violations “is counterproductive in that it can severely disrupt or reverse progress made in reentry up to that point, while doing little or nothing to advance public safety.” Likewise, Less is More is supported by seven elected district attorneys throughout New York State, a bipartisan group of sheriffs, the New York State Association of Counties, and more than 235 non-profit organizations.
At a time when lawmakers face difficult decisions about raising taxes or cutting services, it is indefensible to spend hundreds of millions of dollars incarcerating thousands of people — more than any other state — for violating parole rules. People coming home from prison need help finding jobs and housing, and dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. That’s where our policymakers should be investing public dollars, not in destructive and racially inequitable imprisonment.
Lippman is a former chief judge of New York State and current chair of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform. Schiraldi is co-director of the Columbia University Justice Lab and former commissioner of the NYC Department of Probation.