Advocates urge parole reform in final hours of New York’s legislative session
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Advocates are urging legislators to pass the Elder Parole and the Fair and Timely Parole bills before the end of the week. Photo via RAPP
By Rachel Vick
With less than 24 hours left in the legislative session, parole advocates throughout New York are urging legislators to pass two landmark bills with the release of a new report on parole inequity.
The report from NYU Law’s Center for Race, Inequality and the Law and the Parole Preparation Project found that racial bias is rampant within New York’s parole system, where Black and Latino applicants are denied at disproportionate rates.
“The data from this report confirms what many know: The Parole Board treats white people better than Black people,” said Vincent Southerland, the executive director of the NYU Center for Race, Inequality & the Law and a co-author of the report.
“New York State has a serious issue with racial injustice, especially when it comes to parole,” he added. “We hear a lot of politicians say Black Lives Matter. Well, they should put those words into practice.”
In 2019, the New York State Board of Parole granted release to 40 percent of eligible applicants, according to the report. Data from 2013 to 2016 showed that among applicants with no prior prison sentences who were convicted of third-degree burglary, 41 percent of white people were paroled, compared to just 30 percent of their POC counterparts.
Southerland went on to criticize the board’s evaluation practices, which are based on arrest records instead of the efforts prospective parolees have made to rehabilitate themselves and help others.
The Elder Parole bill would require an evaluation for potential parole release to people 55 and older who have already served at least 15 years, and the Fair and Timely Parole bill would change the standard of parole to focus on an incarcerated person’s efforts while in prison.
TeAna Taylor, the policy and communications associate for the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice, said that her father, while incarcerated, became the first in the family to earn a college degree, inspiring those outside to pursue higher education.
“Will lawmakers take action to address this crisis? Will they pass the … bills to ensure that people have meaningful pathways to consideration for release from prison based on who they are today and what they’ve done to change – and not on the color of their skin?” Taylor said. “Or will they play spectators as Black and brown people are disproportionately held behind bars years and decades past when they’re ready to come home?”
Between October 2017 and October 2019 people convicted and sentenced in New York City were on average denied parole three times and over 4 years beyond their minimum sentence.
Jose Saldana, the director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, shared his uphill battle with the journey to parole and criticized the “double standard of justice.”
He recounted sitting in the bullpen, counting how many of the other men were prisoners of color and how many were white, and accurately predicting that the smattering of white men would be granted release over the others.
“This is not science, this is a reality we have confronted for decades in prison,” said Saldana, who served 38 years for attempted murder. “It doesn't matter what the accomplishments are, how extraordinary the accomplishments are. Men and women in New York State prisons who have been icons, pioneers, educators for up to four decades have died in our prisons.”
Saldana added that many older incarcerated people could serve communities on the outside, just as they have inside prison.
“They have been responsible for transforming the lives of a generation and we have allowed them to die in our prisons when they could have been helpful in our communities, where our youth have been neglected and abandoned,” he added. “We may never have this opportunity again.”
Both bills are still awaiting committee approval in the State Senate and Assembly.
