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.

Statutes affected:
S5085: 259-i executive law, 259-i(2) executive law