“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

 

Those are perhaps the most famous words uttered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrated this week. They are also the words that run through my mind when I think about the withering injustice of mass incarceration. 160 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, we still are not free. In many ways, we have made progress, but still our children are not free. We are targeted for arrest, prosecution, and incarceration – our liberty deprived and, too often, never restored. That, we must change.

 

Here in New York, two different front-page newspaper investigations found the Parole Board of our state routinely and disproportionately denies release to Black and brown people, more often than not ignoring their years and decades of personal transformation and good works. We need to transform this system of injustice to deliver accountability, healing, and safety for all communities. One step is to ensure that our brothers and sisters and cousins behind bars have hope and meaningful opportunities for redemption and release – again – based on the content of their character.

 

Today, our communities are faced with great challenges, some we’ve faced before and some new and confounding. A global pandemic has taken countless of our loved ones, forced us to grieve in isolation, and shuttered — temporarily, we hope –– some of our most treasured and essential community centers. At the same time, without the supports and resources needed to navigate the immense hardships and thrive, too many of our young people have fallen prey to violence. Finally, an overdue reckoning with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of state violence has once again brought division and strife to the political system.

 

Transforming our parole system holds the promise of aiding on all three fronts. Our crowded and inhumane prisons are plagued with COVID outbreaks and related restrictions on movement and visits with loved ones that, together, threaten to cause even more death and despair. Even before COVID, New Yorkers were dying in prison every three days on average – predominantly older adults, who have the lowest recidivism rates. Creating real pathways to case-by-case consideration for parole release, based on who a person is today and whether they are ready to safely return to our communities should be the standard of measure, rather than the color of their skin or what terrible mistakes they made however many years and decades ago.

Such needed changes will help save the lives of those most at risk. It will also allow those elder men and women to use their hard-earned life lessons to provide mentorship, interrupt violence, offer peer-counseling to those with substance use disorders, and promote healthy, non-violent expressions of the pain and trauma that afflicts our young people.

 

Releasing those who are truly rehabilitated is also estimated to return $522 million to our communities every year. Imagine what we could do with half a billion dollars annually to prevent violence, support those victimized by crime, the pandemic, and centuries of oppression. The next generation should not have to inherit a racist, criminal legal system, bent on perpetual punishment.

 

Two pieces of legislation pending in the New York State legislature would expand eligibility for parole consideration and make the process more fair and just. The good news is that the Elder Parole bill and the Fair & Timely Parole bill both have majority support among lawmakers but we know that legislative leaders, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, hold the ultimate authority over whether to call a vote on the bills.

 

To them, I again call upon the spirit of Dr. King. With all that our communities are up against, we must recognize the fierce urgency of now.

 

Pastor Dr. Deborah Jenkins is the Lead Pastor of the Faith at Work Church in Co-Op City, Bronx.