Call for Kathy to advocate parole reform
ALBANY — Hazel Dukes is again pushing parole reform in the Empire State — and hoping Gov. Hochul will get onboard.
The president of the New York State chapter of the NAACP penned a letter to the governor urging support for the Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole bills, joining criminal justice advocates in calling for the passage of two measures that would overhaul and streamline the parole process and make it easier for older inmates to become eligible.
Dukes cited racial disparities among those who receive parole and the overarching impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color.
“Mass incarceration is only the latest chapter in the long history of racial oppression in the United States,” she wrote in the letter obtained by the Daily News on Monday.
“In New York, Black people make up less than 18% of the population and approximately half of all people in prison.”
The Elder Parole bill would give incarcerated individuals older than 55 who have already served 15 years in prison an opportunity to go before the Parole Board.
The other bill, Fair and Timely Parole, would change the standards of parole, centering release on a person’s rehabilitation while incarcerated, not on the original crime.
Dukes first spoke out in favor of the two measures in June as the last legislative session wound down. Lawmakers will return to Albany in January.
The letter comes in the wake of a new report by Columbia University’s Center for Justice that found more New Yorkers died in state prisons in the past decade, 1,278 people, than the total number who died by execution during the more than 350 years in which capital punishment was permitted in the state — 1,130 people.
The report concluded that passage of the two bills would save the state $522 million annually.
“Gov. Hochul is committed to exploring all ways, including legislation, to address systemic racial injustice and improve safety and dignity for all in the criminal justice system,” spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays told The News.
TeAna Taylor, the co-director of policy and communications for the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice, applauded Dukes for rallying behind the bills, which she said would have a deep impact on her own family.
“My father committed a violent crime many years ago and, through deep introspection and mentorship from incarcerated elders, has since grown into a loving, selfless man who will be eligible for parole consideration in a few years,” she said.