Parole reform should top legislative agenda, advocates say
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Assemblymember David Weprin sponsored the Fair and Timely Parole Bill, which would require parole-eligible incarcerated individuals be seen by the parole board. AP File photo by Hans Pennink
By Rachel Vick
Parole reform advocates gathered virtually on Tuesday to outline legislative priorities ahead of the start of the 2022 session.
Formerly incarcerated and impacted individuals were joined by elected officials, including several from Queens, to urge the legislature to pass the Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole Bills on its first day back.
“It's not a get out of jail free card, it's an opportunity,” said People's Campaign for Parole Justice Community Leader Jeannie Colon, who underscored a pressing need to reduce New York’s prison population during the pandemic and beyond, and criticized Gov. Kathy Hochul for not granting more clemencies.
Colon’s husband is currently incarcerated in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, where he rarely leaves his cell unless he is distributing food to sick inmates while wearing just a too-small cloth mask. She said when they spoke that morning, he told her there were about 50 officers out with COVID-19.
The legislation to bring older individuals who have already served 15 years and bring parole-eligible individuals before the parole board, respectively, were left on the back burner at the end of the 2021 legislative session. Elected officials who sponsored the bills committed to continuing the fight with vigor.
Queens’ Assemblymember David Weprin, who sponsored the Fair and Timely Parole Bill, joined fellow borough Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas on the call to recommit efforts to get the legislation passed this session.
“Our system must recognize when someone takes responsibility and takes the steps to rehabilitate themselves,” he said. “I refuse to let the vulnerable and elderly remain in these deplorable conditions and separated from their families.”
From October 2018 through October 2020 the Parole Board granted release to 41 percent of white people who came before the board, compared to 34 percent of Black people and 33 percent of Latinx people, according to a Times Union analysis.
The disparity in release reflects disparities in incarceration — more than half the state’s prison population is Black, despite making up less than 20 percent of the state’s overall population.
Among the recently released individuals who spoke was former Queens resident Greg Mingo with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, who was granted clemency near the end of Andrew Cuomo’s tenure as governor.
He reflected on watching one of his friends, who had been incarcerated since the age of 16, die in prison without a hope of re-entering society or a chance to go before the board to demonstrate his growth.
“All we’re asking for is an opportunity,” Mingo said, emphasizing the importance of advocacy from both inside and outside the prison system.
“It's never been about change, it's been about growth,” he added. “Families don't fully understand the power of their voice, like prisoners don't understand the power of their voice.”
