Parole and sentencing reform left out of omnibus prison reform bill

In the wake of Robert Brooks’ death at the hands of corrections officers at Marcy Correctional Facility late last year, lawmakers in Albany are now set to approve a new omnibus bill meant to increase oversight and transparency for state prisons. But despite a push by criminal justice reform advocates and some lawmakers, the package of measures don’t include parole or sentencing reform proposals they had hoped would finally move amid increased scrutiny of the prison system.

State Sen. Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Erik Dilan introduced legislation Monday evening that included 10 different measures, most of which were also part of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus’ recently released prison reform plan named for Brooks. Some criminal justice reform advocates celebrated the bill for including their priorities. The Katal Center for Justice had advocated for legislation adding more members to the state Commission of Correction, which helps oversee the state prison system. “We’re so grateful that this bill was added to the omnibus bill,” said Melanie Dominguez, organizing director at the Katal Center, calling the new legislation “a great first step and a necessary one.”

In addition to adding more members to the Commission of Correction with specific experience, the omnibus bill also includes a provision to expand the authority of the independent oversight body Correctional Association of New York to make investigatory visits to correctional facilities. It reduces the required advance notice time for a visit from 72 hours to just 24 hours. Another part of the omnibus bill would require the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision commission to conduct a study on deaths at state prisons. Yet another part aims to prevent camera dead zones in correctional facilities. 

Of the measures in the new bill previously included in the BPHA Robert Brooks Roadmap for Justice and Reform, all but one fell into the category of “accountability.” But the roadmap also had three other sections – justice, safety and rehabilitation – that included other proposals that more directly impacted incarcerated individuals. But almost none of those proposals made it into the omnibus bill. The justice section, in particular, included two parole reform bills (the Fair and Timely Parole Act and the Elder Parole Act) and two sentencing reform bills (the Second Look Act and the Earned Time Act). The caucus added the measures at the request of Brooks’ father, who supports the proposals. Each of the four bills have been the subject of persistent lobbying from criminal justice reform advocates, but none have managed to pass either chamber so far. 

The bill sponsors and the BPHA caucus made the case for those proposals to be included in the final omnibus measure, but they ultimately fell to the wayside out of concern that their inclusion may have acted as a poison pill for the less controversial measures. They seem unlikely to pass on their own before the end of the legislative session, as well. State Sen. Jeremy Cooney, the sponsor of the Earned Time Act – which would expand the ability of inmates to shave time off their sentence through good behavior, vocational training and education – suggested that the bill doesn’t yet have the backing needed in order to pass. “We continue to seek support for the Earned Time Act, and advocates are in Albany working hard to make progress on policy language that changes the culture within state prison facilities,” Cooney told City & State, adding that he’ll keep pushing for that support until the last day of the legislative session.

Assembly Member David Weprin, who sponsors the Fair and Timely Parole Act aimed at making it easier for those eligible for parole to receive it, named the bill as his top priority in the area of corrections. But with a little under 70 cosponsors in the Assembly, the bill has not yet publicly reached majority support in the lower chamber. In the state Senate, the legislation only reached that milestone last week.

Criminal justice reform advocates who have prioritized parole and sentencing reform expressed disappointment about their exclusion from the omnibus bill. Jose Saldana, executive director of the Release Aging People from Prison campaign, sent a letter to legislators and staff on Tuesday accusing them of abandoning incarcerated people. “Yesterday, both houses of the Legislature conferenced a legislative package/omnibus bill that, whatever its merits, leaves every single one of the ~32,300 imprisoned New Yorkers behind in the very system that murdered Robert Brooks and countless others,” Saldana wrote. 

He tacitly criticized lawmakers for moving to pass a bill simply directing the corrections commissioner to study why deaths are happening even after not one, but two high-profile beating deaths. “So if nothing else passes, when the many friends and loved ones in the RAPP community reach out to ask us what happened this year, we will have nothing else to say but: Your elected officials just didn’t care enough,” Saldana wrote. He specifically mentioned the Fair and Timely Parole Act and the Elder Parole Act.

In a statement Monday evening, the Center for Community Alternatives organizer Thomas Gant struck a similar tone. “If lawmakers are serious about honoring Robert Brooks and stopping further death and despair, they must do more than monitor the system – they must offer a fair pathway home for incarcerated people who have transformed while inside,” Grant said. The organization in particular has focused on the Earned Time Act and Second Look Act, and Grant once again urged legislators to pass the measures. “Anything less is a choice to let this crisis continue,” he said. 

The Second Look Act came up during budget negotiations as both legislative leaders and the governor sought to address violence and abuse in state prisons following Brooks’ death. Although lawmakers pushed for its inclusion in the late spending plan, a much more limited expansion of the merit credit program made it into the final budget. Like all the other bills that legislators and advocates hoped to see included in the omnibus bill, leaders considered it to some extent before it once again fell by the wayside.