New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform Public Hearing in Albany November 15, 2007 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 2 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 COMMISSION MEMBERS: 3 Commissioner Denise E. O'Donnell, Co-chair 4 George B. Alexander Anthony Annucci, Esq. 5 Assemblymember Joseph Lentol Michael P. McDermott, Esq. 6 Cyrus Vance, Jr. Esq. Wendy Lehman, Esq. 7 SPEAKERS: 8 Robert Maccarone. 9 James Murphy Rocco Pozzi 10 Mark Furnish James Tuffey 11 Alice Green Fr. Peter Young 12 Larry Flanagan Alison Coleman 13 Michael Ranalli Tana Agostini 14 Patricia Gioia Julie McClurkin 15 Karen Carpenter-Palumbo Joyce Hartwell 16 Calton Pulliam Bernard Fleishman 17 Tom Morrison Courtney Ramirez 18 Robb Smith Robert Carney 19 20 21 22 23 24 Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 3 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 Susan Antos Lorraine Barde 3 Yusef Williams Patricia Durham 4 Randy Credico 5 ALSO PRESENT: 6 Assemblymember David Gantt Assemblymember David Koon 7 Assemblymember Jeffrion L. Aubry Paul Korotkin 8 Sharon Malloy 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 4 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 (The hearing commenced at 9:44 3 a.m.) 4 MS. O'DONNELL: My name is Denise 5 O'Donnell, I have the privilege of chairing the 6 Commission on Sentencing Reform and I want to 7 welcome you and thank you for coming to attend our 8 hearing. We are, each of us on the Commission are 9 very, very interested in receiving feedback from 10 the public about our preliminary report, which I 11 hope you read, which is available online at the 12 D.C.J.S. Web site and we have copies available 13 here. 14 This is our opportunity to hear 15 from you, our work is far from done. So, it's 16 important that we have input from the public, from 17 advocates for different groups, from the 18 educational community, the legal community, the law 19 enforcement community and -- and private citizens 20 who care about our sentencing laws. 21 I would like to begin by asking 22 our commissioners, or their authorized delegates, 23 to introduce themselves, and I will start to my 24 right. Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 5 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 MR. ANNUCCI: Good morning, I'm 3 Tony Annucci, deputy commissioner and counsel, 4 executive deputy commissioner with DOCS, and I'm 5 representing Commissioner Brian Fischer. 6 MR. ALEXANDER: Good morning, I'm 7 George Alexander, chairman and chief executive 8 officer of New York State Division of Parole. 9 MS. O'DONNELL: Denise O'Donnell. 10 MR. VANCE: Cy Vance, I'm an 11 attorney in private practice in New York City. 12 MR. MCDERMOTT: Mike McDermott, I 13 am an attorney in private practice here in Albany. 14 MR. LENTOL: I'm Assemblyman Joe 15 Lentol. 16 MS. LEHMAN: I'm Wendy Lehman, 17 I'm an assistant district attorney, I'm here on 18 behalf of Commissioner Mike Green, the district 19 attorney of Monroe County. 20 MS. O'DONNELL: Now, we have a 21 very tight time frame, I'm sorry to say, we have 22 allotted all of our speakers ten minutes, because 23 that allows us to hear from as many speakers as 24 possible, and we do have a large number of people Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 6 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 who want to speak to us today. We do have a 3 timekeeper here, who will help us keep time. 4 And I would like to begin by 5 introducing Robert Maccarone, our illustrious 6 director of the Division of -- or the Department of 7 Probation and Correctional Alternatives here in New 8 York, and a leader in -- in the field of community 9 supervision and reentry. 10 Bob? 11 MR. MACCARONE: Good morning, 12 Commissioner, and thank you. My name is Robert 13 Maccarone, as you have said, and I'm testifying 14 today as the state director of the Division of 15 Probation and Correctional Alternatives, and I'm 16 going to go very quickly. 17 I'm going to read to you the 18 annotated version of my remarks, I'm submitting 19 fifteen copies of a more complete system -- bless 20 you -- of comments. I also serviced as chair of 21 the subcommittee on supervision in the community, 22 which rendered its report to the honorable members 23 of this commission on August 22nd of this year. 24 In this very brief time this Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 7 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 morning I want to accomplish two objectives. The 3 first is to recognize the extraordinary efforts of 4 the Commissioner Chair -- Commissioner and 5 Assistant Deputy Secretary Denise O'Donnell, all 6 the members of the Commission on Sentencing Reform, 7 the members of its four subcommittees, the 8 executive director and the Commission's 9 knowledgeable and professional staff. 10 Producing the Commission report, 11 the future of sentencing in New York State, a 12 preliminary proposal for reform was, an enormous 13 undertaking that resulted in important blueprint 14 for shaping future sentencing reform and practices 15 in New York State. So, first, I want to 16 congratulate you on that. 17 I also want to highlight, of 18 course, the work of probation and community 19 correction agencies in New York State. I urge the 20 Commission to carefully examine the importance of 21 New York State maintaining a strong probation and 22 community correction system to early identify both 23 the risk and needs of offenders and address them in 24 the community as an effective alternative to costly Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 8 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 incarceration in local jails and state prison. 3 Probation is the sentence in -- 4 in nearly forty percent of convicted felony 5 offender dispositions in New York State. I say 6 this emphasizing the fact that the goal of 7 probation in community correction agencies is to 8 reduce recidivism and enhance public safety by 9 holding offenders accountable and providing them 10 the services to assist them in changing their 11 behavior to become a law-abiding residents of New 12 York State. 13 Probation is the original 14 alternatives to incarceration. The state's 58 15 local probation department supervise one hundred 16 and twenty-five thousand adult offenders, twice the 17 number of offenders incarcerated in state prison 18 and a population that is greater than both the 19 state prison and parole populations combined. 20 Fifty percent of the probationers 21 are felons, eleven percent are violent felony 22 offenders and six thousand are sex offenders who 23 are intensively managed in their respective 24 communities. Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 9 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 In addition to the community 3 supervision function, probation departments 4 complete one hundred and thirty thousand 5 presentence investigation reports each year for the 6 courts. 7 As you know the presentence 8 investigation report is an important document for 9 sentencing courts as well as state prison and 10 parole authorities, while it's not within the 11 purview of this Commission to address the needs of 12 the juvenile justice system in New York State - God 13 knows you have a large enough task - I do want to 14 take this opportunity to advice you that the 15 probation departments perform a very critical 16 function in family court managing some fifty 17 thousand intakes annually, completing thirty 18 thousand predispositional investigations and 19 reports, and supervising seventeen thousand 20 juvenile delinquents and persons in need of 21 supervision. Indeed, the importance of that family 22 court cannot be overemphasized, for it is there 23 that the needs of troubled youths and families are 24 first identified. Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing 800.523.7887 800.523.7887 11/15/2007, Albany, NY, Public Hearing Associated Reporters Int'l., Inc. Page 10 1 Commission on Sentencing Reform - 11-15-2007 2 In addition to regulating and 3 providing state aid to local probation departments, 4 D.P.C.A.