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BILL NUMBER:A10542
Title of bill
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to the procedure for determining whether a person shall be released on parole
Purpose or general idea of bill
To strengthen the existing law by ensuring that three parole board members are chosen at random for any discretionary release case and clarifying that parole board release_ guidelines include the nature of the offense, prior criminal record and other related information.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 259-i of the executive law (effective until September 1, 2009) to require a three member panel of members of the Board of Parole, chosen at random, to determine whether an inmate should be released to parole supervision after serving his or her minimum sentence.
Sections 2 amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 259-i of the executive law (effective after September 1, 2009) to require a three member panel of members of the Board of Parole, chosen at random, to determine whether an inmate should be released to parole supervision after serving his or her minimum sentence.
Section 3 amends subparagraph (A) of paragraph (c) of subdivision 2 of section 259-i of the executive law to require that the guidelines adopted pursuant to subdivision 4 of section 259-c of the executive law include the seriousness of the offense, type of sentence, length of sentence, recommendations of the sentencing court, the district attorney, the attorney for the inmate, the pre-sentence report, mitigating or aggravating factors, activities following arrest and prior to confinement, and the prior criminal record, nature and pattern of offenses, adjustments to previous probation or parole supervision and institutional confinement.
Justification
Under current law, a single member or members of the board of parole are assigned to cases as determined by the rules of the board. The rules of the board merely restate that a hearing shall be conducted by a member or members of the Board of Parole.
By requiring a three member panel, the vagueness of the current law and rules would be clarified. A three-member panel would limit the possibility for a deadlock as occurs when two-member panels are utilized and would, thereby, reduce the need for re-hearings. By
requiring a panel, at least some consensus of the members of the Board would be necessary to grant release or to prevent release.
By requiring that the members of the panels be selected randomly, the issue of "judge" shopping is eliminated. The discretion of the chairman of the board is reduced, but the public and the inmates are ensured that the assignment system is unbiased. The Legislature would be providing a system of panel selection that would withstand judicial scrutiny and provide a much better system than one proposed by which inmates would get to choose which members of the board served on their parole panels.
Some critics of the parole system have stated that once an inmate has served his or her minimum sentence, that the board should not consider factors such as the nature of the offense, aggravating factors, prior criminal records and prior probation, parole or institutional confinement records. Currently, the statute specifically mentions these factors in cases where the court has not set a minimum period of confinement, but only indirectly references them in the instance of discretionary release. This bill would insure that those factors are required to be part of any parole board release rules.
Prior legislative history
2008: A.10064; Held for consideration in Codes
Fiscal implications
Undetermined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.