Former incarcerated individuals and current justice policy reform advocates Jose Saldaña, Anthony Dixon and Alton Lee sat before local community members on March 25 for the 12th annual Woodstock Film & Discussion Series to discuss “The Interview” and share their firsthand knowledge of New York’s prison and parole system.
The event, which was open to the public virtually and in-person, began with a viewing of “The Interview,” a documentary by Jon Miller and Zach Russo that features former inmates opening up about their experiences of being repeatedly rejected for parole before they were released. Though their crimes got them life sentences, all of them felt like they made significant changes that made them deserving of a second chance. Unfortunately for them, the parole board consistently focuses on the unchanging nature of the crime over the transformed person before them.
“I took full responsibility and I learned how to do that — not because the Department of Correction gave me any guidance, but because of elders and the thriving community who saw that I was perhaps redeemable,” Saldaña said during the panel discussion that followed the film. As one of the subjects of the documentary, he served 38 years in prison despite his minimum sentence being 25. He used his time in prison to organize programs that helped other people and now continues this work as the executive director of Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) — a grassroots organization working to dismantle injustices elders face in the New York prison system.
The Woodstock Film & Discussion Series tackles global issues on a local scale every year from January to April. This event was its third discussion out of four this year. The annual series is primarily co-organized by Woodstock Transition, a part of the global transition town movement aiming for community resiliency and sustainability, Woodstock Land Conservancy, a non-profit organization committed to preserving land locally and Woodstock Jewish Congregation, a local synagogue with a focus on Jewish ethics; however, this event was presented with RAPP.
RAPP has held similar screenings across New York state to spread awareness and education, including one at SUNY New Paltz on Feb. 20 in honor of Black History Month. RAPP’s primary focus right now is to pass Senate bills S.2423 and S.307, otherwise known as the Elder Parole Bill and Fair and Timely Parole Bill, respectively. Both bills tackle the issue of mass incarceration, which disproportionately affects low-income, Black and older people.
The Elder Parole Bill would allow every incarcerated person 55 or older who has served at least 15 years of their sentence to meet with the Board of Parole. This would not necessarily guarantee release for these individuals, but rather give them a chance at a life outside of prison given their long sentences.
On the other hand, the Fair and Timely Parole Bill would oblige parole commissioners to make their judgements based on the person’s growth and likelihood to reoffend, rather than the nature of their crime or their past criminal record. The language of the current law allows the board to make subjective calls about the seriousness of the crime before they consider an individual’s rehabilitation and efforts to change.
“The crime can never change. What can change is the person. We have a system. We don’t call it a punishment facility, we call it a correction facility,” Anthony Dixon, a subject of the documentary and the director of community engagement for the Parole Preparation Project (PPP) said during the panel.
According to a 2021 report by the Vera Institute of Justice, a national nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice research and policy, 60% of parole denials are based on the original crime alone. Of the other 40% of denials based mostly on public safety concerns along with the original crime, only 3% were at high-risk of violence and offense after their release, as measured by the the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s own recidivism risk tool.
“I’ve not seen anyone inside prison in my 32 years of being inside there that was not capable of change. In fact, most of the individuals that I met that were serving a life sentence were already on the progressive track of transformation,” Dixon said.
The end goal for groups like RAPP and PPP is to release and end life sentences for elders and incarcerated people affected by unforgiving justice policies; however, many politicians have worries about decarceration and prison closure affecting public safety and jobs.
The panelists clarified that elder releases have a relatively low threat to public safety. According to a 2017 report from the United States Sentencing Commission, only 13.4% of released offenders age 65 or older were rearrested. It costs the state between $100,000 – $240,000 a year to take care of each incarcerated individual over the age of 55. Lee added that incarcerated people like himself, who went into a coma during his time in prison, can cost the state even more money. If these proposed bills are successful and enough elderly incarcerated people are released to shut more prisons down, the state would save money that could go to other community services and programs.
After the panel discussion led by Caroline Ritchey, she opened questions up to the audience. One audience member was concerned about showing compassion for victims of crime within this conversation. Saldaña helped develop introspective, victim-aware programs in prison such as “A Challenge to Change,” an 18-week program that explores accountability and the impact of crime. He explained that incarcerated people are very concerned about victims. Marginalized Black communities are not only the most impacted by mass incarceration, but by interpersonal harm as well. Some victims will never feel redemption of the convicted criminal is possible, but through the pain endured on both sides of crime, Saldaña still believes in redemption and repair.
“A mother who lost a child to gun violence also lost a child to mass incarceration,” Saldaña said. “We have a moral, civic and social obligation to help repair harm in our communities.”
Noel Casey, the Westchester and Hudson Valley organizer, ended the event with a call for action. The next step in getting these bills passed is the support of the Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and the Assembly House Speaker Carl Heastie.
“We need the bills passed so that people can start coming home and stop dying in prison. So that we stop spending money on prison unnecessarily, and we can actually stop the cycles of violence and harm that are happening to all these communities.” Casey said.