Photo Courtesy of Kevin Coughlin/Office of the Governor
Governor Hochul signed the Less is More Act into law on Friday.
By Forum Staff
Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday announced actions to improve justice and safety in city jails.
She signed the Less is More Act, which modifies the standard of evidence and certain other procedures when determining whether to revoke the community supervision of a person on parole. Hochul also announced an agreement with the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to allow for incarcerated individuals who have been sentenced to at least ninety days to be transferred from Rikers Island to State facilities.
“Our fellow New Yorkers on parole deserve to reenter society with our support and respect – reincarcerating parolees for technical violations traps them and doesn’t help our communities,” Hochul said. “New Yorkers currently serving sentences in jails and prisons also deserve our support—there is no justice in mistreating incarcerated New Yorkers. While this is just one step and more work needs to be done collaboratively with all levels of government, I am proud to take these steps to increase the safety in City jails, not only for those incarcerated, but for the staff who work tirelessly to keep operations running.”
The Less is More Act aims to ensure the DOCCS focuses its resources on helping people successfully complete community supervision and avoiding future return to DOCCS custody or supervision.
Preventing these reincarcerations allows the State to focus its limited resources on substantive parole violations. This promotes greater community safety and justice for families.
In addition, with the governor signing the “Less is More” bill, in the spirit of this new legislation, DOCCS is currently reviewing the current parole violators and will work with City officials to immediately release up to 191 individuals, who will no longer qualify for incarceration.
The DOCCS has worked with the City to leverage an existing statute that will allow for hundreds of definite sentenced incarcerated individuals, which are those sentenced to at least one day but less than one year, to be transferred from Rikers Island to State custody, where they will serve out their sentences in DOCCS facilities.
Hochul is also directing that 40 individuals sentenced to at least 90 days be sent off of Rikers Island each day to State facilities for the next five days. This will continue on a rolling basis for those eligible.
“For far too long, people who are on parole have lived in fear that a technical violation, like being late for curfew, would send them back to prison. We all know that life happens. Anyone who lives in New York is aware that subways and buses can run late and cause a missed deadline. A non-criminal technical parole violation should not be a reason for families to be separated from their loved ones. The Less Is More Act will help end the punitive practice of re-incarcerating individuals and allow them the chance to reintegrate into their communities,” Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Richmond Hill) said. “As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Correction, I worked on this bill for many years. I am proud to witness this much needed signing today. I thank the sponsors of the bill, legislative leadership, the Governor, and the advocates for all of their tireless work on this bill.”
