“Yes we punish the criminals, but [make sure] that the punishment fits the crime, and that you don’t continue to pay for the crime long after you’ve done the time.”
Billboard campaign seeks to push parole reform bills PUBLISHED 1:14 PM ET Jun. 01, 2021 PUBLISHED 1:14 PM EDT Jun. 01, 2021
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The effort to change New York s parole laws is taking shape this week as advocates plan to bring their case to the districts of the top lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly.
The People s Campaign for Parole is set to unveil billboards highlighting a pair of parole reform bills they want the legislature to take up in the coming days. One bill makes it easier for older people who are incarcerated to gain their release from prison. Another bill is meant to streamline the parole process in New York overall.
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.
There are two weeks left in the official 2021 legislative session, and environmentalists cannot agree on how best to use that time. Some lawmakers are focusing
Members of the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission completed their first true orders of business Friday, including adopting bylaws, a budget and selecting a chair and vice chair after officials finalized