New York’s most powerful prison and jail oversight agency has hit a roadblock as it waits for Governor Kathy Hochul to comply with a new law.
As part of a popular push for prison reform last year, Albany nearly doubled the budget of the State Commission of Correction, which conducts jail and prison inspections and monitors compliance with state corrections regulations. It also ordered SCOC, which has been criticized for virtually ignoring state prisons and inspecting county jails roughly once every three years, to visit every one of those facilities annually.
In December, Governor Hochul also signed a bill that expanded SCOC’s leadership from three commissioners to five. Under the law, portions of which went into effect on May 9, one of the commissioners must now come from a public health or prisoners’ rights background and another must be formerly incarcerated, giving the traditionally law enforcement-led body a more expansive perspective.
The governor hasn’t yet appointed those new commissioners. And that’s a problem. SCOC was already one commissioner down, leaving it with only two of its now-five commissioner seats filled — fewer than the quorum it needs to hold meetings and vote.
In a statement, the governor’s office said she is working on finding SCOC commissioner candidates. “This administration began working diligently to identify candidates for the Commission prior to the effective date for the new law, and will continue to coordinate with the Senate to schedule confirmation hearings to fill these new roles,” a spokesperson said. “Governor Hochul has been clear that the safety of all staff and incarcerated individuals is a top priority.”
On paper, SCOC is among the state’s most powerful criminal justice regulators: It can issue subpoenas, obtain court orders, order dangerous facilities to make changes, and even shut them down if they don’t comply. It almost never wields its full authority, as New York Focus has reported.
Last year’s legislation sought to fix that by expanding its budget, mandate, and leadership. One of the proposals in the package would have increased the number of commissioners to nine and spread the power to appoint them among the governor, the state Assembly, the Senate, and a nonprofit oversight organization. Before signing the legislation into law, however, Hochul negotiated an amendment that reduced the number of new commissioners and gave her sole authority to nominate them (with the Senate responsible for confirming the nominations). The governor, who has been caught up in messy, protracted state budget negotiations, hasn’t gotten around to tapping anyone for the open seats.
“The governor said she was committed to increasing oversight and accountability, yet her inaction speaks louder than words,” said Yonah Zeitz, advocacy director of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, which has helped lead the push to expand SCOC’s power and mandate.
In a statement, SCOC emphasized that its staff are still able to work, visiting correctional facilities, fielding grievances from incarcerated people, and investigating deaths in custody. Anything that requires a vote by the commission at its monthly meetings, however, is on pause.
“Public meetings will resume following the appointment of one additional Commissioner, which will ensure a quorum,” a spokesperson said.
At the meetings — sleepy affairs with little public engagement — commissioners fly through jail construction proposals and often rubber-stamp requests from facilities seeking exemptions to state corrections regulations. They also review the work of SCOC subdivisions that consider incarcerated people’s complaints and investigate deaths.
Earlier this month, two days before the reform law went into effect for SCOC, the commission held an unscheduled meeting and moved through whatever items it could ahead of losing its quorum. The next regular meeting is scheduled for May 27.
It’s unclear if Hochul will have nominated new commissioners by then, or when the Senate will find time to hold confirmation hearings. The state budget negotiations have dragged on nearly seven weeks past the budget deadline, eating up an outsized chunk of the annual legislative session, which ends in mid-June.
The end-of-session crunch has led to nomination chaos before. In 2024, senators rejected about half of Hochul’s nominations to the chronically understaffed state Board of Parole. In the waning hours of the annual legislative session, the governor successfully pushed through a backup pick: a local bureaucrat and failed politician with little experience with the criminal justice system. During his time on the board, the Hochul appointee skipped meetings and interrupted sensitive interviews with incarcerated people. The board placed him on leave before he completed training and ousted him nine months into his tenure. He did not answer New York Focus’s questions or requests for comment at the time.
Hochul and her predecessor also have a history of leaving seats vacant that they’re responsible for filling. It took former Governor Andrew Cuomo almost a year to staff up an important climate action commission. A governor-appointed oversight board that could have scrutinized the State Police’s alleged misuse of auto insurance fees hasn’t had a quorum for over three years. A town board had to sue Hochul to get her to nominate a replacement after resignations left the municipality without a functioning government. In 2024, Hochul publicly referred a disgraced district attorney to a state ethics commission that had never taken a case, in part because the governor took a year and a half to nominate enough members to give it a quorum.
Legislators and advocates who worked to reform SCOC are calling on Hochul to quickly nominate proactive leaders to the powerful body.
“If she is serious about respecting the law and ending the crisis in our prisons and jails, the Governor must fill the SCOC vacancies with reform-minded commissioners who are committed to the health, safety, and dignity of incarcerated people, including one who is formerly incarcerated,” Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said in a statement.
“New laws are only as effective as their implementation,” she said.