Posted on 09/19/21
| News Source: The Hill
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is ordering 191 inmates from Rikers Island to be released on Friday amid a severe staffing shortage, high coronavirus rates and overcrowding.
Hochul ordered that the inmates be released even though legislation she signed on Friday, called the Less is More Act and targeted at technical parole violations, isn't effective until next spring, The New York Times reported. A number of inmates who will be released have parole violations on their record.
“They have served their sentences under the dictates of the new Less is More, but they shouldn’t have to wait until the enactment date,” Hochul said on Friday, according to The Associated Press.
Additionally, Hochul said that over the next five days several hundred more Rikers Island inmates would be transported to state prisons.
The legislation targets the practice of sending people to jail for technical parole violations, such as missing a curfew or being tardy to a parole officer meeting, a measure that would largely get rid of imposing jail time in those instances, the AP noted.
New York’s incarceration rate for people with technical parole violations is considered to be among some of the highest in the United States, advocates say, according to the news wire.