By Zainab Iqbal
“What do we want? Parole justice! When do we want it? Now!”
About two dozen people stood in the cold outside Governor Cuomo’s office in Midtown Manhattan to demand parole justice. New York state law allows for 19 commissioners on the state’s parole board. Currently, there are only 12 of them in position, tasked with interviewing tens of thousands of incarcerated applicants every year.
“This leads to a myriad of problems,” said David George, an activist with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, who emceed the rally. “Rush parole interviews in which people’s literal freedom is determined in mere minutes. Postponements and delays that last days, weeks, months, and even years.”
Rally-goers asked for a full staffed parole board, with commissioners who “embrace the concept of change and transformation,” as George put it.
State Senator Gustavo Rivera echoed the sentiments, saying, “We believe that people can change. We believe that rehabilitation is a possibility.”
Rivera added, “We need to make sure 19 people are on the board . . . and we need to make sure the individuals… [have] an open mind and accept that people can change.”
Keila Pulinario, a formerly incarcerated business owner, spoke about her own experience.
“I was sentenced to a 25 year to life sentence, even though my crime was linked to survival of sexual abuse,” Pulinario said. “After winning a federal appeal, my sentence was reduced to 15-life. Despite all this, the Parole Board then turned me down three times and I served 19 years and eight months in prison.”
She asserted, “We need parole commissioners who don’t keep denying people their freedom because of the nature of the crime . . . We need commissioners who are believers in the system of rehabilitation.”
The director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP), Jose Saldana, said, “RAPP is the voice for thousands of families with incarcerated loved ones, who for too long have lived in despair, uncertainty, and helplessness.”
Summing up the day’s demands, he said: “We demand parole justice for their incarcerated love ones, the men and women who have been languishing in prison across the state for years and even decades. They are repeatedly denied parole release by punitive commissioners bent on punishment and revenge. On their behalf, we demand that Governor Cuomo fully staff the New York State Parole Board with commissioners who believe in redemption and value rehabilitation and transformation.”
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