State lawmakers said sentencing reform will be a top priority in the final weeks of session as a deal to expand earned time credits for incarcerated New Yorkers fell out of the final budget.
Democrats in Albany expressed frustration Tuesday that a proposal to make more people in prison eligible to earn time off their sentence for educational programs, job training or good behavior, was likely removed from the annual spending plan — now over five weeks late.
Sen. Jeremy Cooney, a Rochester Democrat, said Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature could not agree how much time a person could earn off a sentence and which felonies should be eligible. Only about 18% of incarcerated New Yorkers are currently eligible for merit time.
"If people are earning time for good behavior, for merit activities, then it changes the culture within the four prison walls and makes it safer for the correction officers, which was exactly some of the complaints you heard during the strike," said Cooney, who sponsors the Earned Time Act.
The Senate and Assembly wanted to expand merit time to all people in prison, except those with a sentence of life without parole, and allow for a reduction up to a quarter off their sentence. Lawmakers said Hochul supported a 20% reduction.
The budget will permit the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision commissioner to determine the programming eligible for merit time at each facility. DOCCS declined to comment on pending legislation, but said Commissioner Daniel Martuscello supports positive incentives that drive program participation and reduces prison violence.
"Gov. Hochul announced an agreement with the state legislature on many of the major elements of the FY2026 budget and final budget bills will be printed later this week that will provide additional details," a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement.
The legislation will have to separately clear the legislature before session ends June 12. The bill advanced through the Senate Corrections Committee last month and has a strong chance of making it to the floor.
"We hope to be efficient and get support to move these policies," Cooney said.
The criminal justice debate has ignited a fire in members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, who stand ready for a debate in the coming weeks.
"This should have been a no-brainer, slam dunk," Assemblyman Al Taylor told Spectrum News 1. "We should have done this stuff and been out of here. There's no way we should not have passed this budget already."
Advocates continue to rally in the Capitol — refusing to let lawmakers forget their promise to pass a slate of prison reforms after the recent death of two incarcerated men at the hands of correction officers and this winter's wildcat strike, which resulted in the firing of 2,000 COs.
"We need to take some of this heat and make some fire come from it — the fire is here," said Sen. James Sanders, a Democrat from Queens. "We appreciate the governor’s deliberate nature, but I understand that in gambling, which I don’t do, there’s a saying that if you study long, you study wrong. I’d encourage the governor to take a tip from the world of gambling and apply it to the world of justice."
New York's Chief Justice Rowan Wilson met with the caucus this week about passing the Second Look Act, which allows people in prison to ask a judge to reconsider their sentence.
"We as a caucus want something more holistic and considerate of people's sentences and where they are in the process," Caucus chair Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages said. "I know there's a discrepancy of what's beig proposed in the budget and what we want as a caucus."
Solages said the group will announce a legislative package of bills later this month in memory of Robert Brooks, who was fatally beaten by officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in December.
They want more funding for body cameras, to expand the size of the Commission on Correction and parole reforms — some of which have advanced through committees earlier than in the past.
"People should be considered as they are now and not as they were when they committed the crime," Assembly sponsor David Weprin said.
The caucus is also discussing legislation to give the state attorney general's office additional recourse in investigations that involve state employees who are represented by the AG in other pending litigation.
Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Hochul delivered remarks at an annual ceremony in memory of fallen state police officers following a parade outside the Capitol.
Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said Democrats' focus on reducing sentences is tone deaf — especially after a man with a lengthy criminal record was charged in the fatal shooting of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller in Queens last year.
"The guy that killed him had been arrested, I don't know, 20-something times," Ortt told reporters in Albany. "So I don't think it's really working too well. And I bet if you talk to Officer Diller's family, they would agree."
Both Ortt and Solages acknowledged the challenges, but spoke in favor of the budget decision to reduce the minimum age of correction officers in the state to 18 down from 21.
As the budget process drags on, time is running out to get new policy items over the finish line. But lawmakers said they're ready to focus over the next few weeks and get it done.
"I think that we will put a lot of capital on making sure we get something done," Solages said. "Because we can't walk out of this legislative session without doing something."