LETTER HAND-SUBMITTED TO GEORGE LATIMER & JAMAAL BOWMAN

FOR JOINT SIGN-ON AS WESTCHESTER COUNTY’S LEADING POLITICAL VOICES

Memorial Day, 2023
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If one is to believe all that one reads, public safety and criminal-justice reform are on a collision course. We
have a different vision — we believe that government has both the capacity and the responsibility to be
concerned about both, and that the best way to make us safer is to commit to restorative justice.
Our current punitive model — extreme sentences, without the possibility of redemption, as well as endless
denials of parole — has had debilitating consequences, in ways that actually make us all less safe. As we as a
country started to see after the death of George Floyd, many of our practices, including a world-leading level of
mass incarceration, disproportionately impact communities of color. That’s true even here in Westchester,
where, according to data compiled by the Vera Institute of Justice, over 90 percent of those convicted in the
county, serving time in NY State prisons, are people of color. And this population is rapidly “graying” —
thousands are growing old and dying behind bars, recently at a rate of roughly one person every three days. The
cumulative numbers are staggering — the Columbia Center for Justice notes that more people have died behind
bars in our state in the last ten years than in the entire 364 years NY State practiced capital punishment.
There are other consequences of our current focus on retribution. It’s extremely costly to taxpayers — housing a
single senior can approach a quarter of a million dollars a year, diverting monies that could be better spent
furthering public safety and well being. And the cost extends far beyond the financial — estimates are that for
every person behind bars, another ten or more outside — children, parents, grandparents, siblings, other
members of the community — experience significant loss, and on-going trauma of their own.
We need action on many fronts to address the crisis of mass incarceration in New York — investing in
affordable housing, creating job opportunities, funding drug-treatment programs, and implementing common-
sense gun regulations, to name just a few. But as we work on these larger issues, there is one simple way to do
something today, and that is to enact parole reform.
There are two bills — Elder Parole and Fair & Timely Parole — currently before the state legislature that would
start to move us toward restorative justice. These two bills are modest, simply creating and expanding pathways
to potential release to those who have served their time, taken responsibility for the harm that they have caused,
and demonstrated that their release is not only compatible with public safety, but would enhance it. Neither
offers guaranteed freedom, but simply a chance to be considered for release by the Parole Board.
Studies show that elders are the least likely to return to prison if released, with recidivism rates for some age
groups near zero. They also offer unmatched benefits to their communities, serving as peer-recovery counselors,
violence interrupters, scholars, mutual-aid coordinators, teaching artists, credible messengers, and more. Many
were mentors and leaders in prison, helping generations of incarcerated young people change their trajectories to
uplift their own communities before returning home to continue this important work. Their potential release also
begins to restore hope and normalcy to the lives of families and friends outside, many of whom have spent
decades waiting for a son or a father or a sister to return home. And it frees up monies — again, according to the
calculations of the Columbia Center for Justice, up to 500 millions dollars per year — that could be poured back
into communities to address urgent human needs.
We believe that it is restorative justice, rather than perpetual punishment, that contributes to the public safety
that matters to all of us. Passing these two bills now — so that people who have served their time for the harm
they have done, and transformed their lives while inside, be simply given the opportunity to go before the Parole
Board to be evaluated for possible release — helps start the process of rebuilding our communities and building
a more just society. And that, we believe, is the foundation of public safety.
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JAMAAL BOWMAN ISSUED A STATEMENT
GEORGE LATIMER — TO THIS DAY, A YEAR LATER — HAS SAID NOTHING
(George’s “I’ll read this tonight and get back to you” is — after years of personal conversations and promises, and despite
numerous follow-up attempts — the last thing he’s ever said, completely ghosting the community that drafted this letter urging
him to bend the moral arc of the universe by speaking out for restorative justice in the country of which he is Chief Executive)