I have sat through meetings at two different facilities in which the men discussed the way parole effects them. These are men who are trying to change who they are, trying to learn how to function healthily both inside the facility and on the streets when they get out. The fact that they are giving up their time to sit in our meetings is proof enough of their efforts to convince me they are sincere.
But they are being "hit" at parole because of "the seriousness of their crime." There had been a lot of hope that the new wording under NYS 529(i) and the introduction of risk assessment meant that the parole process would focus on the person being interviewed, not the person sentenced. You cannot change the past. If parole is going to be based on who these people were, and not who they are now, then parole is impossible.
In the minds of these men, there are only two explanations: either the State is still operating in the mindset of 50 years ago when PAROLE did the sentencing, and they don't trust the judiciary to know what they are doing; or the State is cynically keeping them in to preserve their jobs and keep the DOCCS budget inflated.
But this is torture of a particular sort. Tantalus had it no worse. Men come to our meetings in pain. "I did everything they told me to do. I stayed out of gangs, I stayed out of trouble. I took pains to do well in all their mandated courses, I took college and trade school courses, I joined AA and go to church, I made myself into a new man. What more do they want from me?"
