SOCIAL IMPACT LIVE: The Case for Smarter Parole in New York

Approximately 35,000 people are under active parole supervision in New York State. At almost any time they can see their efforts to successfully rejoin the workforce and reintegrate into their families and their communities can be disrupted by reincarceration for a technical violation, such as being late for curfew or testing positive for alcohol. Of the 50 states, only Illinois re-incarcerates more people on parole for “technical violations” than New York. In this episode of Social Impact LIVE, host Richard Hara (bio) sits down with senior research scientist Vincent Schiraldi (bio) and Marcellus Morris (bio) to talk about the new campaign to reform what many believe is an overly punitive system; it also carries the disadvantage of being extremely costly. Schiraldi and Morris will explain why they are advocating for passage of the Less Is More Act, which, among other reforms, grants “merit time” of 30 days off of parole for every 30 days people stay violation free and restricts the use of incarceration for technical violations.

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Please contact swcommunications@columbia.edu. We thank all of those who have been a part of our Facebook LIVE series focusing on research and practice with social impact at Columbia University, and if you are a newcomer to the series, we hope you’ll become a regular participant.