Theresa and her husband Morris have been together for 45 years, 11 of them married. She’s known Morris since early childhood and has stuck by him through multiple arrests and prison sentences, as well as his crack cocaine addiction. For the last 14 years Morris has been in prison, stemming from his participation in a group robbery, which included an assault and led to charges of attempted murder and a 40-year sentence.
“My husband is a very different man [than he was 14 years ago],” Theresa told Gothamist. (Theresa asked that the couple only be identified by their first names to prevent retaliation from prison officials.)
Morris is now drug-free and a grandfather. He has completed various programs in anger management, substance use and violence prevention. “I don’t see the person I used to see in the ‘80s and ‘70s,” Theresa noted. “He no longer talks about ripping and roaring in the streets, his old friends, getting back with them. He wants to go back to church—he was a church boy [before]. He wants to sit at home and get to know his grandchildren, repair his relationship with his daughters.”
Morris, who is 65 years old and will not be released until age 91, is one of 354 people In New York who are serving what’s known as a “virtual life sentence,” or a sentence that will likely exceed his lifespan.
New York has the nation's eighth highest rate of people serving life sentences. This includes 291 people serving life without parole, meaning that they cannot appear before the parole board, regardless of their behavior or rehabilitative efforts in prison. Another 8,625 people have prison sentences that can last as long as their lifespans (such as 20 to life, 40 to life, 75 to life).
In 2015, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of an Executive Clemency Review Board, which would identify people eligible for commutation, or a shortening of their prison sentence. (The other form of clemency is a pardon, usually granted after a person has served their prison sentence, which expunges a person’s criminal history.)
But Cuomo hasn’t given much hope to the families of those serving decades-long prison sentences.
In 2019, Cuomo’s office granted no commutations. On Friday, January 3, 2020, Cuomo granted two commutations, bringing his total commutations to 21 during his nine years in office.
For Theresa and other family members of the nearly 10,000 people serving decades-long, if not life, sentences in New York's prisons, that's far from enough. They're advocating for legislative changes that would enable their loved ones to appear before the parole board sooner, demonstrate their transformation, and get an opportunity for an earlier release.
One of those measures is the Elder Parole Act (A9040/S2144), which would require an immediate parole interview for people ages 55 and older who have served at least 15 years of their sentence. The Act does not require the parole board to approve a release, just grant the interview.
If passed, Morris would need to wait just one year, rather than two and a half decades, before appearing before the parole board.
“This is part of an ongoing understanding that older New Yorkers are not a danger to the community,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman, the lead sponsor of the Senate bill. “I believe that rehabilitation is not only possible, but a value of our penal system. When you keep 10,000 New Yorkers in prison until they die, that’s death by incarceration.”
That’s not the only change that Theresa and other advocates are fighting for. They also want to change the way that parole commissioners consider an applicant.
Parole commissioners frequently give more consideration to the nature of the initial crime than to a person’s rehabilitative efforts in the ensuing years. That’s what happened to John Mackenzie, who spent 41 years in prison after being found guilty of fatally shooting a police officer in 1975. Shortly after the parole board denied Mackenzie for a tenth time, citing the nature of his crime, Mackenzie died by suicide at age 70.
Under the Fair and Timely Parole Act, commissioners would have to evaluate an applicant based on their rehabilitative efforts rather than the crime that they were convicted of. If passed, that would mean that commissioners would consider Morris’s efforts at rehabilitation and transformation, not solely by his actions 14 years earlier.
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ossining NY
That’s the chance that Roslyn Smith received in 2018. Smith and her co-defendant Valerie Gaiter had been the state’s longest-serving women prisoners. In 1979, Smith, then age 17, and Gaiter, age 21, were sentenced to 50 years to life for the robbery and fatal stabbing of an elderly couple in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“I did a lot of work inside,” Smith, now in her fifties, reflected. “I did a lot of therapy and groups.” While in prison, she wrote a letter to the daughter of her victims. “When you commit a violent crime, you have to take responsibility for it. You took somebody’s life or harmed them in some way that disrupted their life. You have to understand the harm that you caused.”
In 2018, after 39 years in prison, Smith was resentenced to 25 years to life. She appeared before the parole board and was released that October. Now, she wants others to have that same opportunity. “You need to look at the whole person, not just the crime,” said Smith. “See if that person has changed their life around. A lot of times, in the criminal justice system, we’re defined by that one act.”
Gaiter, however, did not have that opportunity. In August 2019, four years after Cuomo had denied her request for clemency and 10 years before becoming eligible to appear before the parole board, she died at age 61. Gaiter’s death saddened and outraged Smith, pushing her to become involved with parole justice efforts.
Smith acknowledged that the bills have an uphill battle given the backlash against the state's new bail reforms that passed last year. “It’s a hard call. You’re talking about people who have been convicted already. ‘Lock them up and throw away the key,’ that’s what everybody thinks,” Smith said.
Jose Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign, is more optimistic. Saldana was also denied parole based on the nature of his crime -- attempted murder of a police sergeant -- four times, but was released after 38 years in prison at his fifth parole hearing.
“The community is behind us,” Saldana told Gothamist. “We’re hoping to create a real critical voting bloc that will move the dial somewhat because, right now, our elected officials aren’t representing their communities. They’re being influenced by special interest groups like the PBA.”
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA) has long opposed parole reforms and lobbied its members to oppose parole for those convicted in the deaths of police officers. The PBA did not immediately respond to Gothamist’s request for comment, but in 2019, PBA president Pat Lynch told City Limits, “Aside from the fact that today, 55 years old does not qualify as ‘geriatric’ in anyone’s book, the concept of parole based upon age is devastatingly flawed on several levels.” Lynch pointed to two studies on recidivism, but neither study focused on people over age 55, the population that would be eligible under Elder Parole.
On Tuesday, Saldana and other advocates brought 500 family members and other advocates to Albany to press their legislators to co-sponsor and vote for these two bills.
Senator Brian Benjamin, who represents Harlem where Theresa lives, does not believe in locking up and throwing away the key. He co-sponsored the Fair and Timely Parole Act, but told Gothamist that he does not support the Elder Parole Act as it is currently written.
“I support the premise,” he explained. “There are a number of folks, including this woman’s husband [referring to Morris], who deserve consideration after 15 years.” But he’s concerned that people convicted of sexual offenses, including sexual offenses against children, would be eligible for parole consideration after 15 years. “For me, that’s a big stickler. I have concerns about the Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein types. I don’t think those folks should be included.”
Melissa Tanis, one of Benjamin’s constituents and a RAPP member, disagrees. “It’s a chance of release,” she pointed out. “It’s not an automatic granting of parole. Every single person still has to go through a process. It’s just giving more people that opportunity.”
Tanis’s own father died in a Kentucky prison at age 56; he had been convicted of multiple sex offenses and had already served 22 years. During his last weeks, there were no visits or calls because he was physically unable to make it to the visiting room or to the phones. But because of his conviction, she said, he was unable to apply for medical parole or compassionate release, which would have enabled him to spend his last days with his family. By that point, said Tanis, “it was not a matter of what crime he committed. If they let him come home, he wasn’t going to run and commit another crime again.”
Tanis has also been on the other side of sexual violence. “I have had to wrestle with being the victim of sexual harm, been friends with victims and the daughter of someone who has caused sexual harm to other people,” she said. “Yes, I think people should be held accountable when they cause harm.” But, she continues, the bill should not exclude them from the chance at parole consideration.
That sentiment is shared by some victim organizations, including the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims, and STEPS to End Family Violence, who co-signed a letter to legislative leaders in October urging them to pass the Elder Parole Act.
Hoylman noted that recidivism rates for older people are less than 10 percent (with nine percent for parole violations, not new crimes). The Senate bill already has 14 co-sponsors and he plans to speak with colleagues and others about their concerns during the upcoming session.
Assembly Member Carmen De La Rosa, lead sponsor of the Assembly version of the Elder Parole Act, shares Hoylman’s and Saldana’s optimism. “Last year, we didn’t know if bail reform would pass,” she said. But advocates and supporting legislators continued to press, garnering the votes needed to pass and, ultimately, the governor’s signature. “I don’t think the momentum will die from the progressive members of our chamber.”
As for whether the governor might eventually get on board, she replied, “I think there’s some willingness to listen.” (Cuomo’s office has not yet responded to our request for comment.)
At the same time, De La Rosa is under no illusion that Elder Parole will be an easy bill to pass. “Bail reform took years to come to fruition,” she pointed out. “We have to continue to push the conversation and change the narrative about people languishing in prison.”
