NY State Senate Bill 2023-S4309

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Date of Action	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2024	referred to crime victims, crime and correction
Feb 07, 2023	referred to crime victims, crime and correction

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Crime Victims, Crime And Correction
Law Section:: Executive Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §259-i, Exec L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2021-2022: S6391
2025-2026: S5085

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Modifies the factors to be considered when making a parole release decision; updates the term "inmate" to "incarcerated person".

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S4309

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the executive law, in relation to modifying the factors
to be considered when making a parole release decision

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill will get rid of the requirement that the Board of Parole
consider the seriousness of the crime when making a parole decision
since that requirement is already folded into the defendant's sentence
and into other parole factors.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Executive Law § 259-i(2)(c)(A).

Section 2 provides an effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

When an incarcerated person has an indeterminate sentence, the parole
board decides whether or not to release them. Many people serving long
prison sentences for crimes committed when they were young are denied
parole based on the "seriousness of the crime," one of the factors the
board must consider in making their decision. In many cases, even when a
judge has imposed the minimum sentence possible, the board still decides
to keep someone in prison 15 years later based on the seriousness of the
crime. This amounts to a resentencing to a longer minimum sentence than
was imposed by the judge. The judge, who has seen the defendant on
multiple occasions close to the time the crime was committed, read the
records, heard the testimony, and listened to the arguments, is better
able to decide the appropriate sentence than the parole board reviewing
paper records and interviewing the person for fifteen minutes over a
video screen years, or decades, later. It is in fact, the judge's job,
not the parole board's job, to decide the sentence.

We already require the board to take present dangerousness into account.
They are tasked with evaluating whether a person can live in society
without breaking the law, a condition which implies an evaluation of
dangerousness and rehabilitation. If someone is a danger to society or
to a particular person, the board can decide to keep that person in
prison for up to two years before they have an opportunity to be
released again.

This change in the law would instruct the board to look at the person
before them, decide whether or not they are rehabilitated or too danger-
ous to release, then make their decision based on the person's prison
disciplinary record, statements by the victim, recommendations of the
court, the DA and the defense attorney, effort put into rehabilitative
programming and other factors that are more appropriate than the nature
of the crime. Presumably, if their crime was not serious, the person
wouldn't be there in the first place standing before the board. Many
people complain that the board hit them based on the nature of their
crime alone, an immutable fact that can't be changed by efforts at
redemption. This law would allow incarcerated individuals who do not

pose a current public safety risk to earn their way out of prison and
onto parole supervision.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S. 6391 of 2021-22: New bill, Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and
Correction

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None. Will save the state money by letting some people out of prison
sooner.

 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This law shall take effect immediately.

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4309
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 7, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sen. SEPULVEDA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed  to  be committed to the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and
   Correction
 
 AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to modifying the  factors
   to be considered when making a parole release decision

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Subparagraph (A) of  paragraph  (c)  of  subdivision  2  of
 section  259-i  of  the  executive law, as amended by chapter 322 of the
 laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
   (A) Discretionary release on parole shall not be granted merely  as  a
 reward  for  good  conduct  or  efficient  performance  of  duties while
 confined but after considering if  there  is  a  reasonable  probability
 that,  if  such incarcerated individual is released, he or she will live
 and remain at liberty without violating the law, and  that  his  or  her
 release  is not incompatible with the welfare of society and will not so
 deprecate the seriousness of his or her crime as  to  undermine  respect
 for  law.  In making the parole release decision, the procedures adopted
 pursuant to subdivision four of section two hundred fifty-nine-c of this
 article shall require that the following be considered: (i) the institu-
 tional record including  program  goals  and  accomplishments,  academic
 achievements, vocational education, training or work assignments, thera-
 py  and  interactions  with  staff  and  incarcerated  individuals; (ii)
 performance, if any, as a participant in a  temporary  release  program;
 (iii) release plans including community resources, employment, education
 and training and support services available to the incarcerated individ-
 ual; (iv) any deportation order issued by the federal government against
 the  incarcerated  individual while in the custody of the department and
 any recommendation regarding deportation made by the commissioner of the
 department pursuant to section one hundred forty-seven of the correction
 law; (v) any current or prior statement made to the board by  the  crime
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD08852-01-3

 S. 4309                             2
 
 victim  or  the  victim's  representative,  where  the  crime  victim is
 deceased or is mentally or physically incapacitated; (vi) the length  of
 the  determinate  sentence to which the incarcerated individual would be
 subject  had  he or she received a sentence pursuant to section 70.70 or
 section 70.71 of the penal law for  a  felony  defined  in  article  two
 hundred  twenty  [or  article  two hundred twenty-one] of the penal law;
 (vii) the [seriousness of the offense with due consideration to the type
 of sentence, length of sentence and] recommendations of  the  sentencing
 court, the district attorney, the attorney for the incarcerated individ-
 ual,  the  pre-sentence probation report as well as consideration of any
 mitigating and aggravating factors[,  and  activities  following  arrest
 prior  to  confinement]; and (viii) prior criminal record, including the
 nature and pattern of offenses, adjustment to any previous probation  or
 parole  supervision  and  institutional  confinement.  The  board  shall
 provide toll free telephone access for crime victims. In the case of  an
 oral statement made in accordance with subdivision one of section 440.50
 of  the  criminal procedure law, the parole board member shall present a
 written report of the statement to the parole board.  A  crime  victim's
 representative shall mean the crime victim's closest surviving relative,
 the committee or guardian of such person, or the legal representative of
 any  such  person.  Such  statement  submitted by the victim or victim's
 representative may include information concerning threatening or  intim-
 idating  conduct  toward the victim, the victim's representative, or the
 victim's family, made by the person sentenced and  occurring  after  the
 sentencing.  Such  information  may include, but need not be limited to,
 the threatening or intimidating conduct of any other person who or which
 is directed by the person sentenced. Any statement by a  victim  or  the
 victim's  representative  made  to  the board shall be maintained by the
 department in the file provided  to  the  board  when  interviewing  the
 incarcerated  individual  in  consideration  of  release.  A  victim  or
 victim's representative who has  submitted  a  written  request  to  the
 department  for  the transcript of such interview shall be provided such
 transcript as soon as it becomes available.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

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Senate Bill S4309

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

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2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

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Sponsored By

Luis R. Sepúlveda

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

Actions

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S4309 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments