Interesting look at efforts to shine more light on, and get better results from, New York parole practices

Via email I learned of this lengthy article in the Fordham Law magazine discussing the interesting work of Fordham Law's Parole Information Project.  Here is part of the article (with links from the original):

Just as the pandemic has revealed racial disparities in access to health care (and vaccines), dig into New York State’s parole process and you will find racial disparities in access to justice.  An analysis by Albany’s Times-Union newspaper found that of 19,000 parole decisions made in New York State over the past two years, 41 percent of white inmates in New York State prisons were granted parole, while only 34 percent of Black inmates and 33 percent of Hispanic inmates were paroled.  And an earlier study by The New York Times found that fewer than one in six Black or Hispanic men were released at their first hearing, compared with one in four white men.

Overall, 12,000 incarcerated individuals are considered for parole in New York State every year, and a large majority are denied.  Worse, most of the families and pro bono lawyers who are trying to help these prisoners will never know why — the process is that opaque....

“Too often, with issues around mass incarceration, we look at the beginning of the system: who is getting arrested, the sentences they are getting,” says [Martha] Rayner, {who co-directs Fordham Law School’s Criminal Defense Clinic].  “But more and more, there’s a new understanding that if we are going to decarcerate [the prison population], parole is a key area of reform.”

Fordham Law School is on the cutting edge of that reform with its Parole Information Project, a unique database of parole documents that aims to make the archaic, Byzantine parole and parole-appeal process in New York State easier to navigate and more transparent.

With nearly 1,000 parole board transcripts and interviews, assessment reports, and appeal decisions online, all in a searchable, free, and publicly accessible database, it’s possible for families, advocates, attorneys, and, really, anyone, to discover which parole commissioners are making what decisions and exactly what happens in those once-mysterious parole and parole-appeal meetings, and to look for patterns and precedents that can aid anyone focused on parole be more effective and powerful in their efforts.

Now, in the wake of Black Lives Matter as well as two pending New York State laws aimed at reforming the parole system, Fordham Law’s parole project is ramping up. A $100,000 grant from Goldman Sachs will pay for a fellow focused on parole work and add crucial resources to expand the program. “The stars are aligned,” says Rayner, referring to both the grant and the aforementioned two New York State laws up for consideration that could make it easier for those eligible for parole to get it: the Fair and Timely Parole bill and The Elder Parole Bill.

The grant will also go a long way toward helping the parole project team overcome a number of challenges, as well as continue to grow the database. “For any meaningful statistical information, you need a certain volume of documents, and it takes time to get them, to redact names of individuals for privacy, and to revise the database to stay up to date with the most current laws,” explains Yael Mandelstam, the Maloney Library’s associate librarian for technical services.