Senator Montgomery's bill to increase transparency with the Board of Parole passes Assembly (S.3982/A.3053)

 Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblyman David I. Weprin celebrate the passage of S.3982/A.3053 in the Assembly.  This bill directs the Board of Parole to publish parole decisions on a publicly accessible website within 60 days of such decision.

The decisions are useful in that individuals and their attorneys can read appeal decisions in similar cases to see what kinds of arguments might apply to their cases and because agency transparency is an important tenet of open government. The Board of Parole, which exercises extraordinary discretion, should post its administrative appeal determinations so that the public and concerned citizens can have access to the body of decisions that informs the Board's practice. 

This legislation passed the Senate and Assembly in 2016 but was vetoed by Governor Cuomo. Veto message #231 expressed two concerns, first that the effective date of 30-days was insufficient to create the database necessary to implement this legislation, and, second, that an appropriation would be necessary to implement a database. The bill has been amended since the 2016 version to include a one year effective date in order to allow time to create a database and to provide for an appropriation within the budget.

To learn more about this legislation, visit https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/S3982

For more information about the bill's history, visit https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2015/s6806