The Less is More NY campaign is urging people to contact their Lawmaker and Governor Cuomo.
They assert that to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on New Yorkers, and to save lives, Governor Cuomo and the legislature must pass #LessIsMoreNY to release people from jails and prisons. To take action use their action tool to email and tweet Governor Cuomo and your state legislators today. It’s easy and takes just a few minutes to make an impact!
Click here for their action page.
Less is More urges in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, this legislation will free people from jails and prisons to save lives.
There are approximately 35,000 people under active parole supervision in New York. At any time, their effort to successfully reintegrate into their families and their communities can be disrupted by reincarceration for a technical violation, like missing an appointment with a parole officer, being late for curfew, or testing positive for alcohol.
New York reincarcerates more people on parole for technical violations than nearly every other state in the country. Of people on parole whom New York sent back to prison in 2016, over 6,300 or 65% were reincarcerated for technical parole violations. Nearly 1/3 of the new admissions to state prisons are due to people reincarcerated for technical violations of parole. Only 14% of people on parole who were reincarcerated were returned to prison because they were convicted of a new crime. The racial disparity is stark: Black people are incarcerated in New York City jails for technical parole violations at more than 12 times the rate of whites.
The Less is More: Community Supervision Revocation Reform Act would fix this problem.
