Each year thousands of rehabilitated, community-ready men and women appear before New York State's parole board. And each year the vast majority are arbitrarily denied parole. 

These parole-worthy men and women—who are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, sons and daughters—have repeatedly demonstrated that they are not likely to reoffend. They have used their time productively while incarcerated, including acquiring vocational trades, completing drug and anger management programs, founding progressive organizations and earning college degrees. Their release is clearly compatible with the welfare of society.

Even the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision's own statistics show that those who are routinely denied parole tend to be the least likely to recidivate. 

Yet the NYS Parole Board has condemned these men and women to languish in prison.

Join us in calling on Governor Cuomo to establish a temporary commission on parole with the task of bringing transparency, fairness, accountability and public confidence to the parole board--a body that has none of these.  

Thank you.

The Riverside Church Prison Ministry