The murder of Marcy Correctional inmate Robert Brooks last year, followed by the guilty verdict of the three prison guards responsible for his death has fueled new energy into prison reform legislation.
When lawmakers reconvene in January, inmate rights advocates like Jocelyn Anctil say they will actively set out at the capitol to educate legislators on three specific prisoner rights bills.
“The Second Look Act gives judges the power to reconsider excessive sentences. The Earned Time Act strengthens rehabilitation instead of an endless punishment. The Marvin Mayfield Act would end mandatory minimums, restoring judges' ability to actually consider the person in front of them,” said Anctil, a Syracuse University law student.
New York spends over $3 billion dollars each year to imprison people across the state. Mothers of inmates, like Melanie Bishop, say their families bear the rest of the cost. She has spent the past six years visiting her son, Zachary Bishop, at Five Points Correctional Facility in in Romulus, New York.
“Visits are increasingly more expensive,” she lamented, and said it’s that way for everyone related to the prison. “The cost of having an incarcerated loved one, providing them with access to food and clothing that will actually keep them warm in the wintertime, and those who work in the facilities, are all struggling more than they were a year ago.”.
Despite the rising costs for families, the conditions of state prisons are declining. Advocate Thomas Gant, spent several years in a New York prison. While there, he took college courses and learned how to advocate for his fellow inmates. He said it is frustrating trying to compel lawmakers that reform is in everyone’s interest.
“Sometimes the lawmakers don't believe that this is what their constituents want,” he said. “At least that's what they tell us, that they don't sign onto the bills or they're not supporting them because their constituents haven't told them.”
With the recent conviction of four correctional officers in the murder of inmate Robert Brooks, State Senator Rachel May said she has co-sponsored the three prison reform bills. After touring correctional facilities in Albany and Cayuga, she will focus lawmakers’ attention on the forgotten costs of mass incarceration.
“What does [incarceration] do to the families? What does it do to the communities? What does it do to the mental health of the kids and spouse's abilities to thrive?” she asked.
Despite having failed to pass in earlier legislative sessions, May sees the upcoming 250th session as the bills’ best opportunity. Last year, the Earned Time Act was shy of just one necessary signature, when it needed 32.
“I didn't know how broken our system was until it grabbed one of my children into its grasps,” said Bishop, who continues to fight for her son and the nearly 13-thousand inmates housed in Central and Western New York. “It is only one bad decision away for your family to experience what mine has and we can do better,” she warned.
The 250th legislative session will reconvene on January seventh.