BUILDING BRIDGES DECEMBER 2011
BUILDING BRIDGES DECEMBER 2011
NYS PAROLE REFORM CAMPAIGN
NYS PRC will be hosting a workshop at the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus Weekend. Senator Perkins was instrumental in getting us on the agenda. Although the time has not been set, the date will probably be Saturday Feb 18, 2012. Our workshop is titled: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERIES, Parole Release Decisions in the Era of Reintegration. It will “provide perspectives and concrete strategies for creating a parole model that advances public safety and promotes successful and productive reentry and reintegration into society, particularly those communities of color who are severely impacted by mass incarceration.” We will have a panel of 5-6 participants and a moderator. The panel will answer questions posed by the moderator and from the audience. Stay tuned for more.
ANOTHER ORGANIZATION SIGNS IN SUPPORT OF THE SAFE PAROLE ACT: The Staten Island Executive Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends brings to 63 the number of organizations who support the SAFE Parole Act. We feel very humbled by such an outpouring of support for something that was just a dream in the hearts of the families who attended Family Empowerment Day 4 in 2009. We’ve come a long way, and there’s much farther to go, but we will not give up until our men and women in prison are judged by who they have become and not for what they did in the past.
CORRECTING SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE 2011 CHANGES TO PAROLE BOARD POLICIES:
In 2011, the governor revised parole board policies when he merged DOCS and the Division of Parole. He left the Board as an independent body. In doing so he revised the parole statute to direct the Parole Board to:
1. consider the person’s readiness for reentry and reintegration.
2. establish procedures for including risk and needs principles in their decision making process.
The other 8 factors that the parole board must consider are the same as always, except they are now all in one place. They still include “the seriousness of the offense”.
In 2011 the Safe And Fair Evaluations (SAFE) Parole Act was introduced to the legislature as Senate Bill 5374 and Assembly Bill 7939. It is not a law. To become a law it will have to pass in both houses of the legislature and be signed by the governor. That’s a lot of people to convince to support something. It should be easy though, since it makes a whole lot of moral and financial sense. So don’t give up! Every person who joins this effort increases our chance of success. Talk to your legislators. Tell them you want this bill passed, and why. Call us if you need more information: 518 253 7533.
Until the SAFE Parole Act passes there is nothing preventing the Parole Board from denying parole based on the nature of the crime.
RELEASE, REENTRY, REINTEGRATION; HOW THE SAFE PAROLE ACT IS NECESSARY FOR ALL THREE
The Importance of the Safe and Fair Evaluations (S.A.F.E.) Parole Act in Making Decisions about Release, Reentry, and Reintegration
Penal Law 1.05 states that in addition to punishment (retribution), deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation there is a fifth goal: “the promotion of their [incarcerated people’s] successful and productive reentry and reintegration into society.” [emphasis added]
The purpose of this article is to define reintegration, and to show how necessary the SAFE Parole Act is in achieving it.
Reentry and reintegration are commonly thought of as meaning the same thing, but they are, in actuality, very different:
Reentry is the process of returning to one’s community and finding a way to get basic needs met - such as housing, food, employment - without resorting to criminal activities. Preparation for reentry starts in prison, with programs that prepare the person for life on the outside. In recent years outside agencies have gotten funding to meet reentry needs and continue to help a person remain at liberty without reverting to a life of crime. Parole needs to to create linkages for their clients with community agencies that can meet their subsistence needs, such as food, clothing, employment, medical care, and public assistance. Most community organizations offer case management to get a person back on their feet. Most don’t go any further.
Reintegration is established when the formerly incarcerated person has developed social ties that help him or her continue to live at liberty without breaking the law. This person needs to be connected with a new environment which encourages and rewards legitimate behaviors and attitudes. The shorter the period of incarceration, the easier this task will be.
Part of this new involvement is with groups such as neighborhood associations, faith groups, men’s groups, women’s groups; groups where he or she is accepted as a contributing member to the positive goals of the group. Reintegration is the last stage in our criminal justice system, and therefore it must be the goal of all the stages that precede it, from arrest forward. It’s the capacity to live at liberty without disobeying the law. The community must get involved in nurturing legitimate lifestyles in the lives of the men and women returning from prison.
In NYS’s criminal justice system the judicial system sets the punishment, which may include a period of incarceration. Prisons are responsible for providing deterrence and the tools for rehabilitation. The Parole Board’s job is to assess a person’s readiness to leave the incarceration stage behind and begin the process of reintegration.
This is where the SAFE Parole Act becomes necessary. Even with the recent revisions to the law, which mandate the use of a Transitional Accountability Plan and a Risk and Needs Assessment, the criminal justice system has not moved significantly closer to the fifth goal of reintegration. As long as the Parole Board can continue to base release decisions on the crime, which a person can never change, people who are truly ready to begin the process of reintegration will continue to be denied. The Safe and Fair Evaluations (S.A.F.E.) Parole Act doesn’t leave it up to the Parole Board to voluntarily create procedures that would lead to fairer parole hearings, it includes them right in the bill.
Unlike the recently implemented changes, the SAFE Parole Act is based on an understanding that what a person does, what his or her attitudes and behaviors have become over the course of many years, are the most important indicators of readiness for reintegration, and thus for release from prison.
Most importantly, if the parole applicant’s attitude and/or behavior does not meet their standards, the Parole Board must spell out what he or she must do in order to be considered ready for release to parole supervision. Once those requirements have been met, the person must be released.
No one can ever know for sure that another person will commit a crime. But there are good indicators in the SAFE PAROLE ACT, and the Parole Board can do no better than to base their decision on them.
TAP and R&NA will continue to be used by Parole’s Community Supervision once the person is back in society, and will extend until the person has reached the final goal of reintegration.
by Larry White
TRANSITIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PLANS (TAP) AND RISK AND NEEDS ASSESSMENTS (COMPAS)
From the testimony of Andrea Evans, Chairwoman of the Board of Parole, before the Assembly Committee on Correction, Nov 10, 2011, we gained some further insight into how TAP and Risk and Needs Assessments will be used in parole decisions. The following information is from her written testimony to the Committee.
The Board has been working closely with the DOCCS in developing the TAP instrument. It will be the instrument that measures the rehabilitation of persons appearing before the Board, as well as their likelihood of success in the community when released. Each member of the Board has received training in the use of both the TAP instrument and a risk and needs instrument known as the COMPAS instrument. Currently the use of these instruments is being piloted in 3 correctional facilities for the purpose of establishing appropriate conditions of supervision. When the pilot phase is concluded, the Board will use them to assess the appropriateness of an inmate’s release to community supervision. Because the TAP instrument reflects an inmate’s overall effort toward his or her rehabilitation while incarcerated and draws upon information closely associated with their risk of re-offending, and their needs in order to become successful, the Board’s written procedures will call for the use and careful consideration of these documents.
As an interim measure, I have instructed the Board to use the TAP instrument where and when it has been prepared for a parole eligible inmate. I have emphasized that when the Board considers an inmate for parole, they must ascertain what steps he or he has taken toward their rehabilitation and the likelihood of their success once released to community supervision.
The one function that has been transferred from the Board to DOCCS is the granting of certificates of relief and certificates of good conduct. Last year the Board granted 1,695 such certificates. DOCCS has granted 1,581 since April 2011.
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