Written by Rebecca C. Lewis at City and State
6/11/2025
In the wake of Robert Brooks’ death at the hands of corrections officers at Marcy
Correctional Facility late last year, lawmakers in Albany are now set to approve a new
omnibus bill meant to increase oversight and transparency for state prisons. But despite
a push by criminal justice reform advocates and some lawmakers, the package of
measures don’t include parole or sentencing reform proposals they had hoped would
finally move amid increased scrutiny of the prison system.
State Sen. Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Erik Dilan introduced legislation
Monday evening that included 10 different measures, most of which were also part of
the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus’ recently released prison
reform plan named for Brooks. Some criminal justice reform advocates celebrated the
bill for including their priorities. The Katal Center for Justice had advocated for
legislation adding more members to the state Commission of Correction, which helps
oversee the state prison system. “We’re so grateful that this bill was added to the
omnibus bill,” said Melanie Dominguez, organizing director at the Katal Center, calling
the new legislation “a great first step and a necessary one.”
In addition to adding more members to the Commission of Correction with specific
experience, the omnibus bill also includes a provision to expand the authority of the
independent oversight body Correctional Association of New York to make investigatory
visits to correctional facilities. It reduces the required advance notice time for a visit
from 72 hours to just 24 hours. Another part of the omnibus bill would require the state
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision commission to conduct a study
on deaths at state prisons. Yet another part aims to prevent camera dead zones in
correctional facilities.
Of the measures in the new bill previously included in the BPHA Robert Brooks
Roadmap for Justice and Reform, all but one fell into the category of “accountability.”
But the roadmap also had three other sections – justice, safety and rehabilitation – that
included other proposals that more directly impacted incarcerated individuals. But
almost none of those proposals made it into the omnibus bill. The justice section, in
particular, included two parole reform bills (the Fair and Timely Parole Act and the
Elder Parole Act) and two sentencing reform bills (the Second Look Act and the Earned
Time Act). The caucus added the measures at the request of Brooks’ father, who
supports the proposals. Each of the four bills have been the subject of persistent
lobbying from criminal justice reform advocates, but none have managed to pass either
chamber so far.
The bill sponsors and the BPHA caucus made the case for those proposals to be included
in the final omnibus measure, but they ultimately fell to the wayside out of concern that
their inclusion may have acted as a poison pill for the less controversial measures. They
seem unlikely to pass on their own before the end of the legislative session, as well. State
Sen. Jeremy Cooney, the sponsor of the Earned Time Act – which would expand the
ability of inmates to shave time off their sentence through good behavior, vocational
training and education – suggested that the bill doesn’t yet have the backing needed in
order to pass. “We continue to seek support for the Earned Time Act, and advocates are
in Albany working hard to make progress on policy language that changes the culture
within state prison facilities,” Cooney told City & State, adding that he’ll keep pushing
for that support until the last day of the legislative session.
Assembly Member David Weprin, who sponsors the Fair and Timely Parole Act aimed at
making it easier for those eligible for parole to receive it, named the bill as his top
priority in the area of corrections. But with a little under 70 cosponsors in the Assembly,
the bill has not yet publicly reached majority support in the lower chamber. In the state
Senate, the legislation only reached that milestone last week.
Criminal justice reform advocates who have prioritized parole and sentencing reform
expressed disappointment about their exclusion from the omnibus bill. Jose Saldana,
executive director of the Release Aging People from Prison campaign, sent a letter to
legislators and staff on Tuesday accusing them of abandoning incarcerated people.
“Yesterday, both houses of the Legislature conferenced a legislative package/omnibus
bill that, whatever its merits, leaves every single one of the ~32,300 imprisoned New
Yorkers behind in the very system that murdered Robert Brooks and countless others,”
Saldana wrote.
He tacitly criticized lawmakers for moving to pass a bill simply directing the corrections
commissioner to study why deaths are happening even after not one, but two
high-profile beating deaths. “So if nothing else passes, when the many friends and loved
ones in the RAPP community reach out to ask us what happened this year, we will have
nothing else to say but: Your elected officials just didn’t care enough,” Saldana wrote. He
specifically mentioned the Fair and Timely Parole Act and the Elder Parole Act.
In a statement Monday evening, the Center for Community Alternatives organizer
Thomas Gant struck a similar tone. “If lawmakers are serious about honoring Robert
Brooks and stopping further death and despair, they must do more than monitor the
system – they must offer a fair pathway home for incarcerated people who have
transformed while inside,” Grant said. The organization in particular has focused on the
Earned Time Act and Second Look Act, and Grant once again urged legislators to pass
the measures. “Anything less is a choice to let this crisis continue,” he said.
The Second Look Act came up during budget negotiations as both legislative leaders and
the governor sought to address violence and abuse in state prisons following Brooks’
death. Although lawmakers pushed for its inclusion in the late spending plan, a much
more limited expansion of the merit credit program made it into the final budget. Like
all the other bills that legislators and advocates hoped to see included in the omnibus
bill, leaders considered it to some extent before it once again fell by the wayside.