Parole reform can free inequality
Earlier this month, state lawmakers ended their legislative session without taking action on two bills critical to crime victims: the Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole bills. It’s essential that they reconvene to pass these bills immediately. Let me explain.
Among the many people lost to COVID-19, Darlene “Lulu” Benson-seay was the first woman to die of the virus in a New York prison. Lulu was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, and the child of a murdered parent. Most importantly, she was a loyal sister and friend to many on both sides of the prison walls.
When society thinks about crime victims and people who commit crime, we usually think about these groups as separate. But as Lulu’s tragic life exemplifies, they’re not. The reality is that many of us who have experienced violence at the hands of a loved one or a stranger are the same Black people and other people of color impacted by mass incarceration. That’s why many of us in the survivor community are banding together, as we did at a Survivor's Townhall for Parole Justice in April, to expand public awareness and identify real approaches to safety and healing.
As survivors of sexual violence, we know we cannot end sexual abuse and interpersonal violence with state violence, including racist policing and brutal prisons. These systems do not deliver justice and we refuse to let our government lock up mostly Black people and people of color in prison for endless years and decades in our names.
In New York’s prisons, there is a crisis of aging, sickness and death because of decades of harsh sentencing laws and merciless parole release denials. More than 1,000 people have died in prison during Gov.
Andrew Cuomo’s time in office. Roughly 1,000 more have such long sentences they will surely die in custody, and many others will die within months of release due to debilitating health.
Currently, people who appear before the New York State Parole Board, a body of appointees tasked with determining whether to release incarcerated people, are often denied based solely on their original conviction — the one thing they can never change. And many others with extreme sentences will never be eligible for parole consideration, including people convicted as teenagers, no matter how much they have transformed.
We are working to pass reforms to the parole system in New York and give people in prison, particularly elders, an opportunity to be fairly considered for release. The Elder Parole bill would make older adults who have served at least 15 consecutive years eligible for parole consideration. The Fair and Timely Parole bill would ensure parole hearings evaluate people based on who they are today, including any rehabilitative endeavors they have pursued, evidence-based therapeutic programs they have successfully completed, and their reentry plans. The Parole Board would continue to assess an individual’s readiness for release on a case-by-case basis. These reforms would go a long way toward undoing the despair of the current system.
For many survivors of violence, healing support is critical: According to a national survey on the perspectives of crime victims on criminal justice reform, most survivors want funding for rehabilitation, not endless punishment. Digging deeper, the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims, a group of survivors and advocates in New York, developed a new agenda for crime victims, including racial justice, accountability, and interventions to stop cycles of violence. Not on the list? Long prison sentences.
Also, many survivors, especially Black people and other people of color, transgender survivors, and other marginalized survivor communities, are directly harmed by deathin-prison sentences. Most people enter prison with histories of childhood trauma and, once behind bars, they often experience violence at the hands of guards. Likewise, survivors in the community lose sorely needed support networks when their loved ones are locked up.
The legal system doesn’t promote healing, nor accountability. And it’s certainly not about safety – police are generally called, if they are even called, after the violence has occurred. The current system is about vengeance, racism, and shame – everything that creates the conditions that lead to violence. It silences survivors of color and other marginalized survivors.
Despite this, individuals behind bars find their own ways to heal, take accountability, and go on to make enormous contributions – helping others to heal and prevent violence with mentorship and life-altering peer-led programs in prison. We need their insights to help prevent violence in communities outside of prison. Expanding opportunities for parole release will improve safety in our communities.
As Black people and other people of color, we have a history of healing that’s rooted in community — through church, cultural centers, and the arts. We’re about loving each other and finding a common language to help our people heal. Incarceration only serves to further unbind our families and communities.
We need to build new systems rooted in our communities to keep us safe, and we cannot succeed when so many of our brightest minds — our elders, our leaders, our survivors – rot in cages.