On Friday, flanked by progressive advocates and state Democratic leaders, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed The Less Is More Act, which will end the practice of sending people to jail as they await hearings over alleged technical parole violations, such as missed curfews and marijuana use. The signing of the decarceration bill, which is expected to release several hundred detainees from city jails, comes after weeks of public outcry over a string of deaths at Rikers Island.
“Today is about protecting human life, the lives of the people who are incarcerated as well as correctional officers,” Hochul said, referring to the chaos at Rikers.
“It’s also about protecting human dignity,” she continued. “This questions who we are as a people, when we can allow situations as we’ve seen at Rikers [to] exist in a prosperous, mighty city like New York. The fact that this exists is an indictment on everyone.”
The bill will also give city judges the discretion to release parolees facing new criminal charges, no matter how small. Currently, because new charges constitute parole violations, judges are required to send parolees to jail in such cases.
At a City Council hearing on Wednesday, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice estimated that such legal modifications could result in the release of around four hundred people sitting in Rikers and other city jails.
Since the pandemic, New York City jails have been overwhelmed by escalating rates of violence and self-harm. This year alone, the Department of Correction has admitted to at least nine deaths in custody, including five suspected suicides. (The department does not count the death of Tomas Carlos Comacho, who was found unresponsive at a Rikers facility in March, but died after being discharged to a hospital.)
"The signing of #LessIsMoreNY into law is a huge step forward, for not only New York, but for the entire country, because this bill is a model for smart parole reform,” Kenyatta Muzzanni, Director of Organizing at the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, said in an emailed statement. “Tens of thousands of New Yorkers and their families who have been harmed by broken parole practices will instead be given the chance and support they need to succeed. And once implemented, this bill will get us one step closer to closing Rikers Island for good.”
For those found to have committed technical parole violations, the bill provides for short graduated penalties depending on the number of violations. The sanctions are capped at a maximum of 30 days of incarceration. With the possible exception of Illinois, New York leads the country in sending people back to prison for technical parole violations, which accounted for around 40% of new prison admissions in 2019.
The bill would not go into effect until next year. To provide immediate relief, Hochul said she’s directing the state parole board to release 191 Rikers detainees immediately, and transferring around 200 others to state facilities to relieve concerns of overcrowding.
“If it’s a pure technical parole violation, everyone we can release, we will,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told Brian Lehrer on Friday, while discussing Hochul’s actions. The mayor cautioned that some people might be held on both technical parole violations and other violations related to violent incidents. He also added that some releases might need to be worked out through the court system.
“Anyone who can be appropriately released, we want to be released,” he said.
George Joseph is a reporter on Gothamist/WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit. If you have a tip, you can send him a message on Facebook, Twitter @georgejoseph94, Instagram @georgejoseph81, and at [email protected]. His phone and encrypted Signal app number is 929-486-4865.
