Opinion By: Randal Chinnock
I have been involved in criminal justice reform for many years and I must comment on your recent article ”Corey Turner Denied Commutation Of Murder Sentence For Maintaining His Innocence.” I am aware of many similar accounts of incarcerated people who have had years of documented exemplary behavior but are denied parole or commutation because victims’ families oppose it. I am convinced that the influence of victims’ families on the parole system must be changed.
Right now, Victims’ families’ opposition is enough to cause parole boards and others to take the “safest” possible course of action – doing nothing. There’s no question that losing a loved one to violence—or having a loved one be victimized by a violent crime—is incredibly traumatic. But families’ statements should not be the reason for denial of parole or commutation of an incarcerated person’s sentence.
Victims’ families are invited to make impact statements when offenders are sentenced. Judges take these statements very seriously, and they can affect sentencing. This is where victims’ families’ influence should be heard – and where it should end.
In contrast, when it comes to a parole or commutation hearing, everything that an incarcerated individual has done during their incarceration should be assessed. How many years have they served? Have they grown emotionally? Have they educated themselves? Have they helped others through mentoring, completed programs and demonstrated remorse in a tangible way? Have they had “jobs” or other training in prison? What have they learned? Do they have a support network outside of prison to help them transition to life “outside”? Were they sentenced during a period of extreme sentencing guidelines, such as in the 1990’s?
The truth is, the U.S. is far behind other Western nations when it comes to how we treat our incarcerated people. In Europe, for instance, a “life sentence” typically means that most individuals are eligible for parole after 15 years (in England and Wales), or 18 years (in France), or 12 years (in Denmark). It’s also true that in the U.S., people of color are much more likely to be serving life sentences: Out of the 203,000 individuals serving life sentences here, 2/3 are people of color. I understand that victims’ families’ pain may never end – and I feel for them. But locking up people unnecessarily incurs a huge cost on society – both in terms of taxpayer dollars and lost opportunities for incarcerated individuals to return to society as workers, siblings, parents, and spouses.
Many other Western nations and some U.S. states and Washington, D.C. have implemented “second look” programs, where the cases of ALL incarcerated individuals are subject to mandatory review after a period of time, with clear guidance on assessing that person’s growth, remorse, and rehabilitation. This is especially important for aging incarcerated individuals who incur twice the cost to the state for incarceration than younger incarcerated individuals—an average of $60,000-$70,000 a year due to declining health as they age. This, despite the fact that fewer than 2% of people 55 and older who are released from prison return to prison for committing violent crimes.
Maintaining one’s innocence should also not be grounds for denial of parole or commutation – as it often is in parole hearings in the U.S. Why? Because there are so many examples of wrongful convictions, ineffective representation of counsel during trials and sentencing, and bias at all levels of law enforcement, the judiciary, and corrections – particularly when defendants are indigent and are paired with overworked public defenders, as a recent article in the Harvard Law Review found. We must recognize that not all convictions are just. Lack of remorse for a crime that the incarcerated person truly did not commit should not be a reason for denial of release.
I urge Governor Lamont’s administration to support a second look program that is focused on the possibility of release for older incarcerated individuals who have served at least 15 to 25 years when earned, particularly when these individuals are over age 55. No one should languish in prison longer than necessary. We as a society tend to judge incarcerated individuals not on their entire life histories – particularly what they’ve accomplished while incarcerated, but — unjustly — on the single worst thing they ever did. Let’s change that.
Randal Chinnock resides in Eastford, Connecticut
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of Connecticut Inside Investigator.
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Although we have finally stabilized our budget in the short-to-medium term, CT continues to see economic stagnation, with our GDP having yet to surpass the 2007 record. A major issue reported among businesses is a lack of people to hire as our population stagnates and ages. A major impediment to growth is high taxes and high public debt.
It seems we could hit two birds with one stone by enacting these suggested policy changes. They would increase the working population(good for businesses) and by extension payroll tax income while also reducing costs related to incarceration (quoted at $67k/prisoner per year by USAfacts.org). We could cut taxes, increasing affordability, or improve our schools to attract young working families while reducing our labor shortage.
I also strongly agree with the emphasis on those over 55. It has been shown that, statistically, people are most likely to commit crime between the ages of 15-25, with the risk dropping dramatically as people age, making long sentences, as discussed in the article, a useless waste of peoples lives and taxpayers money while perpetuating injustice towards people of color, who are overrepresented in prisons. These policies will act to correct historic inequities and the ridiculously punitive sentencing in a country with an incarceration rate of 505/100,000, compared to, say, Germanys 67/100,000 (which it has while maintaining a 5x lower murder rate per capita, showing the ineffectiveness of over-incarceration). Lets work to expand our economy and serve our communities better.
Books over bars.
My name is Henry Austin and Connecticut. Justice system is not flawed. It is corrupt I know firsthand because 255973. Shouldn’t be me when trusted public court, officials, police, officers and officers of the court inspired by March 20, 1998 conviction for crimes that never existed and then they covered it up appointing me effective assistance council that refused to address the issues of constitutional magnitude that would’ve exonerated me because the crimes never existed! And no one who I pay my taxes to has even bothered to investigate my allegations of corruption in slave violations of my rights for 20 years, and I’ve been fighting all by myself with the truth and when the truth is heard, I’m sure justice will be served, but if I ever gave up domestic terrorism lives and we think that these people that we pay our taxes to is about providing us and rendering us our rights it’s about six figure pension! I got charged $27,000 in child support while incarcerated and $189,000 for housing as an inmate without a job no means of income after a wrongful conviction, after a mistrial was called!