Articles

Policing DA’s: Much Needed Reform Achieved in NYS

I never thought in a million years, I would hear a story where a man’s life was ruined because an insurance company did not want to pay out a policy. That’s exactly what happened to H. Bosh Jr. In 2005, Bosh was the owner of the largest minority moving company in upstate NY. He had 12 workers and 3 trucks in service. His company grossed a-half-a-million dollars in sales. He was a successful businessman and a respected man in the community.

Imagine waking up one day, a convicted felon rotting in a 6 x 9 jail cell, and your whole life flashes before your eyes, because you were just convicted of a crime you did not commit. Your loved ones, your worldly possessions, everything you worked for, your entire life is now a thing of the past. It can happen to you and it has happened to many people. They sit in prison with little or no resources to try to prove their innocence. Basically, once you hit that gate in a NYS prison, life as you knew it, vanishes before your eyes, no one cares, and you will choose to give up or fight for your life. The sad reality is, you will serve most if not all, of your sentence before you even get another shot at freedom. If you even do.

Their Quest for Freedom. In NYS, there are currently 52,344 incarcerated individuals housed in NYS facilities (2). There are 10,540 incarcerated individuals who are married (2). This represents 21% of the total incarcerated population (2). 60% of the incarcerated individuals have children (married or not) (2). Maintaining family ties is closely associated with successful re-entry. The family unit is important when looking at how incarcerated people re-enter society Most people at some point do return to our communities.

What Is Your Background in Activism. I can’t pinpoint when exactly I really started to consider myself an activist. Honestly I still contemplate if that’s what I would consider myself. I have always had a deep passion for helping others and standing up for what is right.

Prisons in New York state are far from a five-star resort. When entering the darkened world of the belly of the beast, not only is an incarcerated individual stripped of their identity where they become a number but basic human rights often are shed by the wayside. Imagine not having the ability to have a warm shower at times, decent food, fresh fruits and vegetables, the right to not be falsely accused of disciplinary infractions, the right to adequate shelter and the right to medical care. Most recently, according to research done by the reporters at the NY Times in December 2016...

Directive 4028 A governs the NYS DOCCS policy on sexual abuse prevention and intervention regarding staff-on-incarcerated-individual and was enacted to comply with federal regulations regarding the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 ( see 42 USC 15601). This legislation is intended to safe-guard the victims of illegal behavior of correctional employees and create a safe atmosphere for incarcerated people to report instances of sexual abuse. These protections are not being enforced by NYS correctional officials and the purpose and underlying protections intended for incarcerated individuals reporting correctional staff abuse are NOT being afforded.

An organization that charges up to $250 to mount an organized campaign to prevent parole release of convicted killers has attracted the interest of defense attorneys resulting in a complaint to state and federal authorities.

Directive 4028 A governs the NYS DOCCS policy on sexual abuse prevention and intervention regarding staff-on-incarcerated-individual and was enacted to comply with federal regulations regarding the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 ( see 42 USC 15601). This legislation is intended to safe-guard the victims of illegal behavior of correctional employees and create a safe atmosphere for incarcerated people to report instances of sexual abuse. These protections are not being enforced by NYS correctional officials and the purpose and underlying protections intended for incarcerated individuals reporting correctional staff abuse are NOT being afforded.

As a lawyer and defender of civil liberties, the editorials, essays and letters published recently in the Democrat and Chronicle on gangsta rap left me shaking my head in disbelief. Although the authors downplay what they are really doing, what we have here is straight-up censorship of protected free speech.

As the jury selection got underway at the Cayuga County Courthouse for the trial of Dino Caroselli, an Auburn Correctional Facility incarcerated individual accused of assaulting two corrections officers, an 11-person protest settled on Genesee Street to decry the system.