WBFO Albany correspondent Karen DeWitt reports.
Criminal justice reform tops the list for many Democratic Senators and Assemblymembers, including changes to the state’s parole system. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, speaking on public radio station WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom, says she backs reforms to the state’s parole system.
Credit Avery Schneider / WBFO News
“Yes we punish the criminals, but (make sure) that the punishment fits the crime,” Stewart-Cousins said, and that you don’t continue to pay for the crime long after you’ve done the time.”
Measures under consideration include the Elder Parole Act, which would give inmates an automatic parole hearing if they are over the age of 55 and have served 15 years of their sentence. Another measure, known as the Fair and Timely Parole Act, would require parole boards to give more weight to a person’s rehabilitation record in prison than to the crime that they originally committed.
New York State Legislature considers Adult Survivors Act that would provide a revival one-year period of statute of limitations within which survivors of adult sexual abuse may file civil claims against individuals, companies and institutions, even if statute of limitations expired, and/or claims were previously dismissed because of late filing.
Survivors of child sex abuse who have struggled to get legal representation to sue abusers who lack money or assets are pushing the state Legislature to fix flaws in the