Life in Prison Without Parole Doesn’t Stop Perpetual Cycle of Harm
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Assemblyman Matt Slater’s latest legislative effort to have those involved in the death of a police officer “never see the light of day” is misguided.
In reaction to this week’s release of Scott Cobb, a 60-year-old man who was one of four men convicted in the 1988 death of New York City Police Officer Ed Byrne, Slater introduced legislation to prohibit parole for those involved in the death of a police officer.
On the surface, many agree that those convicted in the death of an officer should die in prison. The Parole Board, however, determined that Cobb is not the same individual he was 35 years ago. The board weighed the facts, looked at his time in prison and heard the pleas of the PBA and Byrne family members who no doubt argued for his death in prison.
We are all still paying for the tragic killing of Officer Byrne. Beyond the annual $240,000 of taxpayer funds to imprison the four men ($60,000 each), his death resulted in a bonanza for police departments. Since 2005, more than $7.6 billion in law enforcement Byrne grant funding has been distributed by the federal government.
Enough perpetuation of a culture of punishment! We need to put dollars into preventing crime and ending a cruel system where our fellow community members spend decades warehoused in cages.
Slater is grossly out of step with the state legislature, which is working to reverse the inhumane albatross of policies established in the 1970s through the 1990s. It’s the same policies that made mass incarceration possible and allow over 30,000 people every day to live in New York prisons, 75 percent of whom are Black and brown, 98 percent of whom pleaded guilty with no trial.
Our legislators are urgently working to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, abolish two- and three-strikes laws, create a right to a second look at unfairly long sentences and strengthen good time and merit time laws to promote fairness and rehabilitation for incarcerated people.
Finally, they have heard our voices. They are doing the hard work of reform, recognizing the fallacy of superficial system “fixes” that allow politicians to claim moral high ground and public safety as their highest priority – when the facts tell a different story.
Having spent more than 10 years in several New York State prisons as a volunteer and employee, I’m privileged to know many men and women who are finally home with their families. They are leading inspiring lives of service, actively giving back to their communities – as no doubt Scott Cobb will do. Godspeed. Enough harm was created by the death of Officer Byrne.
Renee Fogarty
Yorktown
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