Issue Summary.
According to NYS Correction Law, temporary release programs include work release, furlough, community service, industrial training or educational leaves, and leaves of absence. With work release, incarcerated persons, who have demonstrated readiness for a return to society by virtue of completion of major rehabilitation programs and corresponding good behavior, are allowed to leave a correctional facility for some hours each day to work productively in the community.
Executive Order No. 9 bars from all temporary release, including work release, all those convicted of any of six categories of crimes, including many once-violent and since rehabilitated offenders.
Coalition Position.
Rationale.
Those Incarcerated. A high proportion of those returning from prison have experienced social neglect. Many were poorly educated, lived in substandard housing, had poor socioeconomic backgrounds, and had family histories that were un-nurturing, highly disruptive, or part of a foster-care system. Many experienced domestic and street violence in their childhood, were unemployed for long periods, and incurred alcohol or drug addiction. Returning prisoners have served longer prison sentences than in the past, meaning they may be less attached to their families, jobs, and the community to which they return.
We’ve thoroughly trained our incarcerated persons, over 5, 10, or 20 years, to
forget their self worth, how to communicate, how to cooperate, how to make
decisions, how to find alternative ways, how to reach out to others, how to
negotiate, etc. All those life skills have to be re-learned, through arduous
practice. If they’re not quickly restored, a quick return to frustration,
anger, parole violations, crime, and prison are likely.
After years of subordination, making decisions and following
through are new requirements. Suppressed rage and hostility, built up over the
years keep surfacing. Fear of repeated failure, shame, and fear of rejection
reinforce a lack of self esteem or sense of social inferiority. Too many of those returning to society will
have difficulty in overcoming a prison-strengthened social disability, and therefore
will return to crime
or violate conditions of parole, be caught, and return to prison, unless we help
them.
Reintegration.
Work release can contribute substantially to gradual, personal re-growth, and hence to reductions in recidivism.
The gradual transition from dependency in prison to responsible freedom,
through work release, is –for many – necessary for crime-free survival.
The transition provided by work release
is particularly necessary for once-violent offenders who have spent much time in
prison.
A combination of improved addiction treatment, expanded vocational training, and carefully selected, non-violent and once-violent individuals for work release can help to transform lives, reduce future crime, and reduce future costs.
The NYS Commission on Sentencing Reform report dated October 15, 2007 "makes a series of recommendations intended to improve the likelihood of successful offender re-entry including: exploring the possible expansion of work release eligibility to include additional categories of inmates; the increased use of "step-down" facilities such as the recently created "Orleans Re-entry Unit;" the expansion of prison-based educational and vocational training; the enhancement of employment and housing opportunities for offenders re-entering the community; and the use of re-entry courts which follow the successful model used by New York's problem-solving courts."
Risk Assessment. Nine expert criminologists report in "Unlocking America," JFA Institute, Nov. 2007, that: Of the total arrests in 1994-97, only 5% were of prisoners released in 1994-97, and only 1% were of released prisoners for violent crimes. Just 1.2 % of those who served time for homicide and were released in 1994 were re-arrested for a new homicide within three years of release; and just 2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape.
Modern risk assessment technologies can improve the probability that only those of less risk are granted work release. It clearly is unjust to automatically withhold work release from those who long ago were convicted of a violent crime. Today, a much narrower exclusion can be prudently designed.
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