The Legal Aid Society, in response to reporting in The Intercept, called on Governor Cuomo and the Legislature to enact comprehensive reform to overhaul New York’s broken, racially discriminatory parole system.

Today’s report specifically examines New York’s practice of jailing people for technical parole violations, including being late for curfew, missing appointments with parole staff, or failing to update contact information. New York reincarcerates more people for technical parole violations than any other state in the country except Illinois.

For years now, despite New York City’s declining jail population, people incarcerated for technical violations continues to increase. Lastly, like many other facets of New York’s criminal legal system, these violations overwhelmingly affect New Yorkers of color

“It has catastrophic consequences and it’s so avoidable. You don’t need to destroy someone’s life to get them back on track,” said Laura Eraso, a staff attorney with the Parole Revocation Defense Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “This shows you in so many ways that DOCCS has no consideration for somebody’s successful reintegration — because if they did, they would not put people in this situation.”