CONTACT: Nick Encalada-Malinowski  / 347-259-4835

FORMERLY INCARCERATED NEW YORKERS, ADVOCATES AND LEGISLATORS DEMAND ALBANY TAKE ACTION TO END MASS INCARCERATION IN NEW YORK STATE

Community Members Call for the Immediate Passage of Popular Legislation

ALBANY, NY – Formerly Incarcerated New Yorkers, allies and elected officials rallied  in Albany on May 28th at 11AM to highlight the issue of mass incarceration in New York State and demand legislative changes. 

According to the Prison Policy Institute, New York has an incarceration rate of 317 per 100,000 people meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democratic country on earth. 

Prisons and jails in New York State are sites of incomprehensible violence and lack the oversight, accountability, culture and norms to ensure the safety of people incarcerated there. As the above stat indicates there are also far too many people incarcerated in the first place – a stark reminder of broader social policy failures.

There are people in prison who are wrongfully convicted and have no avenue for relief. There are elderly people, sick and in hospice with no avenue for relief. There have been people in prison since they were 17 and now 70, with no avenue for relief.  

This comes at an incredible financial and social cost. Among them are people with tremendous capacity and ability to make our communities on the outside better and safer and those of us here are ready to support them in coming home. 

Bills the groups highlighted have broad support in the legislature and from the public at large. These include: 

• The Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act (S6319 & A7422)
• Elder Parole (S454/A514) and Fair & Timely Parole (S159/A127)
• Earned Time (S342/A1085) and Second Look (S158/A1283)

QUOTES: 

“Every wrongfully convicted New Yorker deserves a viable path to exoneration. Our state ranks third in the nation – behind Texas and Illinois – in the number of such convictions. People have been robbed of their livelihood, time with their families, and they’ve lost every conceivable benefit of freedom. I sponsored the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act in the Assembly to give people a fighting chance, including access to post-conviction discovery and an attorney in eligible cases. Being wrongfully convicted is among the greatest harms a person can experience. New York State must do everything in our power to make them whole,” said Assemblywoman Latrice Walker.

“Every 2.5 days someone dies in DOCCS custody, whether from neglect, mistreatment or abuse of some kind. We aim to disrupt this pattern today by passing legislation in Albany – such as the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act and other bills – that will support people’s release from these conditions,” said Kezilar Cornish, a Leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union. 

Jose Saldana, Director of the RAPP Campaign, said: “Governor Hochul and state lawmakers promised to take action after body camera footage of the murder of Robert Brooks by a mob of white prison guards shocked the world. Subsequent media attention exposed that such racist brutality had continued unchecked for decades. Civil rights leaders, top crime victims advocates, District Attorneys and defenders alike are calling for the enactment of the Fair & Timely Parole and Elder Parole bills to promote the value of personal transformation during incarceration, provide meaningful opportunities for release consideration, and ultimately reunite families across the state. Every additional year a person is forced to languish in prison beyond when they have served their time is another year in which they may face the same racist brutality that took the lives of Robert Brooks, Messiah Nantwi, Karl Taylor, Sam Harrell, Leonard Strickland, Terry Cooper, John McMillon, and countless others, as well as the extreme sexual violence and medical neglect that are rampant within DOCCS. Elder incarcerated people are especially vulnerable. New York State must act this session to enact these common-sense policies.” 

“The Second Look Act and Earned Time Act advance both safety and justice, allow judges to consider the individual factors in a case, and promote rehabilitation rather than perpetual punishment,” said Thomas Gant, Community Organizer at the Center for Community Alternatives (CCA). “The Second Look Act would give judges the ability to re-evaluate long sentences after ten years, to recognize transformation and growth. The Earned Time Act would restore the opportunity for people to earn time off their sentences through education, work, and growth. When people have real hope, prison culture changes. Violence goes down. Safety goes up—for everyone. With support from New York’s Chief Judge, our former prison commissioner, the American Bar Association, and everyday New Yorkers, this is the year to pass these critical reforms.”

“Only in New York can you have powerful proof of actual innocence, but still have no legal avenue to vacate your conviction on those grounds,” said Sergio De La Pava, Legal Director at the New York County Defender Services. “Exactly how many wrongfully convicted New Yorkers languishing in our prisons due to a Kafkaesque statute is the Governor comfortable with? We face a clear moral imperative. We must enact the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act immediately.”

Anthony Dixon, Deputy Director, Parole Preparation Project said, “Every day the Legislature fails to pass Elder Parole, Fair & Timely Parole, and Second Look, it is choosing to keep elders, survivors, and transformed human beings locked in cages under the illusion of safety. This is not public protection—it’s political cowardice. These bills would immediately relieve DOCCS’s so-called ‘understaffing crisis’ by reducing the number of people it pointlessly confines. And they would free up millions in taxpayer dollars to invest in what actually keeps communities safe—housing, education, and certificate-based programs for people returning home. Albany has the power to act. The question is—does it have the courage? Justice delayed is not just freedom denied. It’s a budget failure, a moral failure, and a human rights disgrace.”

###