ALBANY – Several dozen parole-reform advocates convened on a legislative hearing Wednesday where the reform-minded chairman offered hope that a process increasingly criticized by the courts is ripe for change.
Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, a Manhattan Democrat and former public defender with the Legal Aid Society, said he has visited a dozen state prisons in the past three months, and expressed concern that felons who seemingly pose no threat are routinely denied parole because of a violent offense committed decades in the past. He said there are times when the system is “just plain stupid.”
