NY State Senate Bill 2025-S5085

Current 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
Feb 18, 2025	referred to crime victims, crime and correction

2025-S5085 (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
2023-2024: S4309

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Summary

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

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5085

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:

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 PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Executive Law § 259-1(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.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.4309 of 2023-2024; Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction;

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.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This law shall take effect immediately.

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5085
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 18, 2025
                                ___________
 
 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] SUCH
 INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL will live and remain at liberty without  violat-
 ing  the  law,  and  that  [his  or  her] SUCH INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL'S
 release is not incompatible with the welfare of society and will not  so
 deprecate the seriousness of [his or her] SUCH INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL'S
 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  follow-
 ing  be considered: (i) the institutional record including program goals
 and accomplishments, academic achievements, vocational education, train-
 ing or work assignments, therapy and interactions with staff and  incar-
 cerated  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 individual;  (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
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD09693-01-5

 S. 5085                             2
 
 section one hundred forty-seven of the correction law; (v)  any  current
 or prior statement made to the board by the crime 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] SUCH
 INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL 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 S5085

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

Actions

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Details

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

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Sponsored By

Luis R. Sepúlveda

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee

Actions

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Details

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2025-S5085 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments