Rapp Campaign Hails Call By Mayor Mamdani To Pass Elder Parole in NYS
At a press conference to announce a new thera peutic unit in Bellevue, New York City Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani called on Albany law makers to pass Elder Parole for New York State. This legislation would provide for parole release consideration, on a case-by-case basis, for people classified by NYS DOCCS as older adults who have already served long sentences. No one would be guar anteed release, but those with the lowest risk of recidivism and the highest incarceration costs would be able to make their case to come home. Specifically, Mayor Mamdani said: “There are pieces of legislation in Albany that as an Assembly Member I was proud to support and I think that those are critical to move forward. One of them was Elder Parole.” (See video here at 22:27.)
In response, Jose Saldaña, Director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP) and a survivor of 38 years in New York State prisons and a crime survivor, released the following statement:
“We are grateful to Mayor Mamdani for using his platform to urge Albany to pass the Elder Parole bill. The evidence is clear that forcing completely rehabilitated elders to spend their final years in prison costs a fortune and delivers zero public safety benefit. They have the lowest rates of reoffending once released and the highest medical bills while imprisoned. Currently, state prisons have substandard hospice wards for people with terminal illnesses and whole units for people with dementia. Prisons shouldn’t be nursing homes or morgues.
The elders in prison who mentored me to become the man I am today had no chance to even be considered for release, no matter how much they had transformed and given back. They worked to end violence and stop crime with no expectation of personal reward because they knew they had a duty to repair the harm they had caused in their communities. My cohort and I went on to create some of the most effective programs that change criminal thinking and behavior for fellow incarcerated people, yet many of us did not make it home. Our mission is to ensure that incarcerated people have a fair pathway home – one that sends a clear message that our state values personal transformation, and that promotes such positive changes in those currently facing impossible odds in prison and in dire need of a reason for hope.”
BACKGROUND:
At least 174 people have died in New York State prisons since Rob ert Brooks was brutally murdered by a mob of white prison guards and sergeants, according to DOCCS data.
The average age of death in state prisons is only 56.
The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is calling on lawmakers in Albany to pass two bills that, together, will ensure that people in prison have meaningful opportunities for individualized consideration for parole release based on who they are today, what they have done to change, and whether they pose a risk if released:
Fair and Timely Parole (S.159/A.127) restores the Parole Board to its original purpose of evaluating people’s readi ness for release, rather than denying people based solely or primarily on their conviction, while preserving the Board’s discretion to make indi vidualized determina tions. In other words, it would provide more rigorous parole reviews for incarcerated people who are already parole eligible.
Elder Parole (S.454/A.514) provides for parole release consideration, on a case-by-case basis, for people classified by DOCCS as older adults who have served at least 15 years.
Analysis from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision shows an astoundingly low reincarceration rate for older people. Among people released from New York prisons in 2018, less than 5 percent of people aged 50–64, and less than 1 percent of people aged 65 or older, returned to prison on new convictions. Even more compellingly, less than 1 percent of people aged 50–64, and less than 0.5 percent of people aged 65 or older, were reincarcerated on violent convictions. People released under California’s Elder Parole program have a 1.8% re conviction rate, meaning nearly all go on to live within the law.
More than a dozen of the state’s leading crime victim & survivor advocates and anti-violence advocates are calling for passage of the Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole bills, including the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and more.
These bills are also backed by 350+ partners, including public defense organizations and District Attorneys alike, as well as at least two former New York State Parole Commissioners, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the NAACP, seven U.S. Congressmembers, 1199 SEIU, HTC, RWDSU, 32BJ, LiveOnNY, JASA, Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey, the Rochester City Council, Ulster County Legislators, the New York City Council, Albany’s Common Council President and Chief City Auditor, the State Society on Aging, the ATI & Reentry Coalition, the New York City Bar Association, and many others. Attorney General Tish James backs Elder Parole.
According to a report by NYU Law School’s Center on Race, Inequal ity & the Law, racial disparities in parole release decisions under Governor Kathy Hochul are the highest on record. The report finds there would have been 4,152 more grants of release to people of color if their release rates matched those of white people since 2016, including 1,338 just since Gov. Hochul took office.