NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3475A
SPONSOR: De La Rosa TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to parole eligibility for
certain incarcerated persons aged fifty-five or older
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill adds new subdivisions 18 and 19 to section 259-c
of the Executive Law ("State board of parole; functions, powers and
duties"). -Sub. 18: provides that a person 55 or older who has served at
least 15 years of a sentence shall have an interview with the Board of
Parole to determine whether they should be released to community super-
vision within 60 days of their 55th birthday or the last day of the 15th
year of their sentence, whichever is later. If release is not granted,
the person shall have a subsequent interview no more than 24 months
later. -Sub. 19: requires the Board of Parole to report quarterly to
the Governor, Legislature and public about the outcomes of elder parole.
Section 2 of the bill is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
After decades of harsh sentencing practices, New York State holds the
shameful distinction of having the third-largest population of people
serving terms of life imprisonment in the country. Hundreds of incarcer-
ated New Yorkers - parents, grandparents and great-grandparents - may
never live to have an individualized release assessment, no matter how
much they have changed in the years and decades since their conviction.
People serving life sentences are disproportionately Black and Latinx,
and they are aging rapidly behind bars. The perpetual confinement of
aging and elderly people is particularly immoral as studies show that
rearrest rates for older adults released from prison are vanishingly
small, particularly for those originally convicted of serious crimes.
However, even as New York's prison population declined in the last two
decades, the number of elders behind bars grew substantially. New York
has the second-largest prison budget in the nation, spending between
$100,000 and $240,000 annually for each incarcerated older adult, which
the New York State Department of Correction and Community Supervision
(DOCCS) defines as adults 55 years of age or older, due to the acceler-
ated aging people experience while in prison.There is a growing consen-
sus among people across the political spectrum that mass incarceration
is ineffective, flawed, and racially biased. It harms, rather than
improves, community health and safety. Elder parole would ensure that
older adults serving long sentences have an opportunity before the
Parole Board to demonstrate their transformation. It would not require
anyone, regardless of their age, to be released. Rather, it would
empower the Parole Board to use its discretion by individually evaluat-
ing a person based on the factors established in Section 259-I of the
Executive Law.This legislation would bring hope to incarcerated people
who have worked hard to change, as well as their families. It would
allow people the chance to safely return to their communities and save
the state hundreds of millions of dollars that could be reinvested to
meet critical community needs.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
S.2144 of 2019-2020 (Hoylman): Died in Crime Victims, Crime, and
Correction A.9040 of 2009-2020 (De La Rosa): Died in Correction S.8581
of 2017-2018 (Hoylman): Died in Crime Victims, Crime and Correction
A.6354-A of 2017-2018 (Weprin): Died in Codes
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately; provided that all persons who
meet the eligibility requirements established by section one of this act
upon the effective date of this act shall be interviewed within sixty
days of such date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3475--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 26, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DE LA ROSA, CARROLL, AUBRY, CRUZ, LAVINE, PERRY,
KIM, GOTTFRIED, O'DONNELL, SIMON, EPSTEIN, BARRON, REYES, RODRIGUEZ,
WALKER, D. ROSENTHAL, COOK, ROZIC, PICHARDO, TAYLOR, DICKENS, JOYNER,
L. ROSENTHAL, NIOU, FAHY, DARLING, HYNDMAN, VANEL, FERNANDEZ, GLICK,
MITAYNES, STECK, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, KELLES, BURGOS, GALLAGHER, MAMDANI,
ANDERSON, SEPTIMO, FORREST, BURDICK, CLARK, DAVILA, ZINERMAN, RAMOS,
HUNTER, MEEKS, JACKSON, SOLAGES, McDONALD, SAYEGH -- Multi-Sponsored
by -- M. of A. FRONTUS, HEVESI, QUART -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Correction -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to parole eligibility for
certain incarcerated persons aged fifty-five or older
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 259-c of the executive law is amended by adding two
2 new subdivisions 18 and 19 to read as follows:
3 18. notwithstanding any other section of law, where a person serving a
4 sentence of incarceration has served at least fifteen years of their
5 sentence or sentences and has reached the age of fifty-five or greater,
6 conduct an interview within sixty days of the date of the person's
7 fifty-fifth birthday or the last day of the fifteenth year of their
8 sentence, whichever is later, pursuant to section two hundred fifty-
9 nine-i of this article to determine whether such person should be
10 released to community supervision. If the board determines that release
11 is appropriate pursuant to the terms of section two hundred
12 fifty-nine-i of this article, then the board shall release the person to
13 community supervision. If release to community supervision is not
14 granted, the person shall be informed in writing within two weeks of
15 such appearance of the factors and reasons for the denial of such
16 release and the board shall specify a date not more than twenty-four
17 months from such determination for reconsideration, and the procedures
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02819-08-1
A. 3475--A 2
1 to be followed upon reconsideration shall be the same. If release to
2 community supervision is granted, the board shall set release conditions
3 and the provisions of this section shall otherwise apply as though the
4 person was released after the completion of his or her minimum sentence.
5 The release assessment and determination required by this subdivision
6 shall be in addition to, and may not replace, other release assessments
7 and determinations required by law.
8 19. submit reports, quarterly, to the governor, the temporary presi-
9 dent of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of
10 the senate, the minority leader of the assembly, the chairperson of the
11 senate committee on crime victims, crime and correction, and the chair-
12 person of the assembly committee on correction. Such reports shall
13 include: (i) the number of parole interviews held pursuant to the
14 requirements of subdivision eighteen of this section; (ii) the outcomes
15 of parole interviews held pursuant to the requirements of subdivision
16 eighteen of this section; and (iii) where parole was denied following an
17 interview held pursuant to the requirements of subdivision eighteen of
18 this section, the articulated reasons for each denial, the members of
19 the board assigned in each case and a record of their votes, and the
20 race, sex, facility, and crime of conviction of each denied applicant.
21 Such reports shall not include personally identifiable information about
22 applicants. Reports required by this subdivision shall be published
23 quarterly on a publicly accessible website maintained by the board.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that all persons
25 who meet the eligibility requirements established by section one of this
26 act upon the effective date of this act shall be interviewed within
27 sixty days of such date.
