Senate Bill S159

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S159

SPONSOR: SALAZAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the executive law, in relation to findings of the state
board of parole necessary for discretionary release of incarcerated
individuals on parole

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

Provides that the Board of Parole shall release incarcerated persons who
are eligible for release on parole, unless the parole case record demon-
strates there is a current and unreasonable risk the individual will
violate the law if released and such risk cannot be mitigated by parole
supervision.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Executive Law § 259-i (2) (c)(A) to require the grant-
ing of release on parole to individuals who are eligible for parole
release, unless the parole case record demonstrates there is a current
              

and unreasonable risk the individual will violate the law if released
and such risk cannot be mitigated by parole supervision. The determi-
nation as to whether there is a current and unreasonable risk of the
individual violating the law that cannot be mitigated by parole super-
vision must be based on consideration of seven 'factors listed in the
statute, including evidence of rehabilitation and reform, participation
in programming and therapeutic support, and release plans. A decision to
deny parole release may not be based solely or primarily on any or all
of the following factors:  statements made by the crime victim or repre-
sentative, the seriousness of the original offense, prior criminal
record. A decision to deny parole release must be in writing with
detailed, and individualized explanation as to how the parole case
record and the enumerated factors were considered and weighed.

Section 2 requires the Board of Parole to submit quarterly reports
relating to denials of parole release.

Section 3 provides an effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The current decision-making process in the Board of Parole does not
properly serve the goals of rehabilitation and community safety. This
bill would establish fair procedures for determining whether to release
an individual eligible for release, offer proper recognition for rehabi-
litative work of incarcerated individuals, enhance community safety,
reduce racial disparities in release rates, and would have a significant
positive fiscal impact on New York State.

When deciding whether to release an incarcerated person to community
supervision, the Board of Parole currently is required to consider the
person's likelihood of committing future crimes upon release and to
determine whether the person's release would "deprecate the seriousness
of the crime." In practice, this provision results in the Board rarely
releasing individuals on their first appearance if the underlying crime
was violent, even if it took place many years prior to the Board appear-
ance and even when the person has a low risk of reoffending.
This practice of not releasing individuals who can, in fact, be released
to the community with no risk to community safety, also results in a
significant racial disparity. According to a November 2024 report by The
Center on Race Inequality & The Law at NYU Law School, parole release
data from the last three years show the widest gap in release rate
racial disparities since the state began collecting this data in 2016.
According to their findings, there would have been thousands of addi-
tional grants of release of people of color if release rates for people
of color matched those of white people. This stark racial disparity was
present even after controlling for variables such as prior offenses and
seriousness of the underlying crime of conviction. (1)

Current law also makes the board susceptible to political pressure to
deny parole to incarcerated individuals with high profile crimes.  Even
if they are thoroughly rehabilitated with excellent prison records 60%
of incarcerated individuals are denied release by the Parole Board, and
90% of denials are due to the nature of the original crime (2), minimiz-
ing any efforts, growth, and rehabilitation that may have occurred over
years of incarceration.

The Board's failure to grant parole to low risk incarcerated individuals
results in expensive, prolonged, and unnecessary incarceration of middle
aged and older incarcerated individuals who have a very low probability
of recidivism, costing the state between $100,000 to $240,000 per year,
per person, in comparison to $60,000 per year for a younger incarcerated
individual (3), according to the People's Campaign for Parole Justice.
According to the New York State Comptroller's Office, the number of
older individuals has continued to increase, more than doubling from
2008 to 2021. (4)

This bill would require the Board of Parole to release people to commu-
nity supervision when their minimum period of incarceration has been
served, unless there is a clearly articulated current public safety
reason to keep them in prison. There would be a presumption of release
unless the Board determines by a preponderance of evidence that an
incarcerated individual is unlikely to live without violating the law
and that their release poses an unreasonable public safety risk.

 
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RACIAL JUSTICE IMPACT

As noted above, there is a clear and stark racial disparity in rates of
release of parole in New York. The denial of parole to thousands of
individuals who--but for the race-based disparity would have been home
with their families and in their communities-creates and enlarges the
harm already caused by lengthy periods of incarceration. This harm is
more keenly experienced by communities of color in New York State.

In December 2022 the Senate held a Public Hearing to solicit public
opinion on this bill. With in-person testimony and more than 60 written
testimony submissions, from directly impacted individuals and families,
survivors of crime, legal experts, and advocates, the feedback consisted
of overwhelming support for passage of this bill.  Many of the testimo-
nies highlighted the critical nature of this bill in regard to the
impact it will have on racial justice, as well as human and civil
rights.

Additionally, the funds that will be saved by NYS when this bill is
enacted could and should be better spent on the pressing needs of low-
income communities, particularly communities of color. These needs
include accessible and affordable health care and mental health care,
housing, childcare, overdose prevention and substance abuse treatment,
high-quality public education, accessible victim assistance, and suffi-
cient reentry support for all returning community members. Al.of which
will improve the quality of life for people in New York, and will
contribute to deterrence from crime, enhancing public safety and human
rights.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

This bill will save the state at least $60,000, and as much as $240,000
per year for each incarcerated person who is released upon the
completion of their minimum sentence but who would have been kept in
prison under current law, or $333 million dollars annually. It has no
costs associated with it.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

SENATE:

2024: S307 (Salazar)- Referred to Crime Victims, Crime & Correction.
Reported and Committed to Finance

2023: S307 (Salazar) - Referred to Crime Victims, Crime & Correction.
Reported and Committed to Finance

2022: S7514 (Salazar) - Referred to Crime Victims, Crime & Correction

2021: S7514 (Salazar) - Referred to Rules (Same bill)

2021: S1415A (Rivera) - Reported out of Crime Victims, Crime &
Correction, enacting clause stricken

2019-2020: S497A (Rivera) - Referred to Crime Victims, Crime &
Correction

2017-2018: S8346 (Rivera) - Referred to Crime Victims, Crime &
Correction

ASSEMBLY:

2023-2024: A162 (Weprin) - Referred to Correction, Reported to Codes

2022: A4321A (Weprin) - Referred to Codes

2021: A4321A (Weprin) - Referred to Correction, reported to Codes,
Amended

2020: A4346A (Weprin) - Referred to Codes

2019: A4346A (Weprin) - Referred to Correction, Amended, Reported to
Codes

2017-2018: A7546 (Weprin) - Referred to Correction

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
1.  
HTTPS://DRIVE.GOOGLE.COM/
FILE/D/10A22SJVMATJDR06UMCNHX_WXDLGMAD/VIEW
2. Heller, B., Green, C., Purkayastha, S., King, B., & Boldin, A.
(2021). Toward A Fairer Parole Process: Examining Parole Denials in New
York State. The Vera Institute of Justice. Retrieved from
https://www.vera.org/publications/toward-a-fairer-parole-process.
3. https://centerforjustice.columbia.edu/sites/
default/files/content/Final%20Unl ocking%20Billions%20Report.pdf
4. https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/
aging-prison-population-2022.pdf