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GOP Lawmakers Seek To Toughen State’s Stance on Paroling Inmates

February 4, 2008

Senate Republicans in Albany are backing a proposal that would make it more difficult for convicted murderers to be released on parole while making it easier for communities to track inmates freed before the completion of their sentences.

Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s Republican conference is expected to support a bill that would require a unanimous votes from three-member parole board panels — instead of majority votes — for granting the release of offenders convicted of the most violent crimes.

Another measure would set up an online database through which people could look up photographs, crimes, and addresses of parolees under supervision.

Republicans are expected to introduce the legislation today, as they seek to paint Governor Spitzer as weak on crime. They have pointed to data showing that the number of violent offenders released on parole has sharply increased under his administration. They are also critical of a language bill that was buried in Mr. Spitzer’s executive budget that would loosen medical parole restrictions. Mr. Spitzer is proposing to expand eligibility to inmates who are suffering from conditions that render them permanently brain-damaged or physically incapacitated but aren’t fatal.

“There is a consistency that’s been created to put the worst of the worst back on the street and in our communities,” a Republican senator of Brooklyn, Martin Golden, said. “There will be only one outcome, which will be increased crime, and that is not what they elected this governor to do.”

Source: NY Sun Read the full story here

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Written by NY Politics · Filed Under Crime, News 

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