Time Range For Action Alert:
February 3, 2022 to February 8, 2022On February 8th, please join League members in a Day of Advocacy for Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole organized by RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) and the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice.
Elder Parole S15A/A8855, provides incarcerated people 55 years and older that have served 15 years or more of their sentence an opportunity for parole release consideration.
- Elder Parole would allow incarcerated people aged 55 and older who have already served 15 or more years a chance to go before the Parole Board for a hearing.
- Roughly 1,000 people would immediately become eligible for parole with the passage of Elder Parole, and thousands more people would ultimately benefit in years to come.
- The Elder Parole bill does not provide automatic release but instead a meaningful review and evaluation by the Parole Board, something that is not reasonably available to many older incarcerated New Yorkers, who may be forced to wait decades for a hearing or never receive one at all.
- Elder Parole would save lives, reunite families, promote racial justice, and save the state tens of millions of dollars.
- This bill is a critical step forward towards reducing the number of people subjected to long and life sentences in New York.
Fair & Timely Parole S1415A/ A4231, provides a fully staffed Parole Board guidance on criteria in deciding parole release for eligible incarcerated people. The standard for release consideration would be centered on a person’s rehabilitation and growth while incarcerated and not on the original crime.
- Fair and Timely Parole would provide more meaningful parole reviews for incarcerated people who are already parole eligible.
- The bill would change the standard of parole by centering release not on the original crime but on the person’s rehabilitation while incarcerated. In other words, parole commissioners would no longer be able to deny release based solely on the crime for which the person is convicted.
- This is a meaningful step towards ensuring fair parole hearings, increasing New York’s dismally low parole release rate, and reducing the number of New Yorkers behind bars.
- It does not, however, fully take away parole commissioners discretion. It instead merely brings the statute in line with the original purpose of parole, which is to identify a person’s readiness for release, not a chance to relitigate the case.
The day of advocacy will be facilitated by RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) and the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice. Above information is taken from RAPP's Fact Sheet (see more here)
