On Tuesday, Gov. Hochul will deliver her first State of the State address as the first woman to be elected governor. Among other things, she plans to lay out her vision for how to make New York safer.<\/p>\n
As someone who has been raised in communities where I had to worry about the cops and the robbers, a former lieutenant governor and state senator focused on criminal justice reform and public safety, and most recently, as someone charged with crimes that were rightfully dismissed, I believe I have a unique perspective to offer as the governor prepares her public safety agenda.<\/p>\n
There have been several transformative policies passed recently including bail reform, Raise the Age, discovery and parole reform. Though there are various perspectives on the success and\/or failures of these reforms, evidence and facts \u2014 not perception \u2014 should decide policy.<\/p>\n
![\"Lieutenant](\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/resizer\/NqYcq0EKLP6LIlCWLX7__5YNWHc=\/1440x0\/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/tronc\/RHWTJXISPZCULJ2DKBYJ4TPBTI.jpg\")
<\/picture>Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin, progressive advocates and state Democratic leaders, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed The Less Is More Act on September 17, 2021. <\/span>(Kevin P. Coughlin\/Kevin P. Coughlin\/Office of the )<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Look at the major parole reform bill named \u201cLess is More,\u201d which I championed as a senator and lieutenant governor, and which Hochul signed into law on Sept. 17, 2021<\/a>. The bill sought to address the fact that the fastest growing population at Rikers Island was due to technical parole violations \u2014 in other words missing a curfew or failing to notify your parole officer of an employment change.<\/p>\n \u201cLess is More\u201d looked to address this issue by eliminating reincarceration for most technical parole violations, and it reduced parole supervision by 30 days for every 30 days that someone did not have a new parole violation as an incentive for good behavior.<\/p>\n Since \u201cLess is More\u201d was not going into effect until the following March, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) released 8,000 parolees<\/a> over the following two weeks as a good faith measure. According to a recent update by the Katal Center<\/a>, nearly 13,000 people have been discharged early from parole. The total parole population in New York has been cut nearly 40%, and approximately 2,000 people have been released from jails and prisons.<\/p>\n For those of us like myself who believe that we incarcerate way beyond the need for public safety this sounds good, but does this represent the complete picture of what is happening? These statistics beg some obvious questions like, what is the status of the 13,000 parolees? Have any of them committed new crimes? If so, which crimes? The broader question being how new crime among parolees has tracked under \u201cLess is More\u201d versus before \u201cLess is More.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLess is More\u201d is certainly a success given the immense costs of incarceration and the devastating impact on families and communities, but upon further reflection, we should have added a provision that required an annual report by DOCCS to assess the legislation\u2019s impacts and possible deficiencies. Unfortunately, in lieu of meaningful analysis, conversation and debate, anecdotal comments fueled by sensationalized media stories are driving the narrative.<\/p>\n