Post-Incarceration Preparation

Ethical Cornerstones
A commitment to restorative justice means addressing the hurt of each person whose life has been touched by crime. Retributive justice often reflects the spirit of vengeance and ignores the systemic societal dimensions associated with crime. The challenge is to incapacitate offenders in a manner that limits violence, and holds open the possibility of conversion and restoration. (ELCA Statement on the Death Penalty).

Restorative justice points to governmental responsibility for:
· protecting society.
· promoting wholeness of life (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
· encouraging family support (support of loved ones is essential for wholeness of individual and society).

Health Care Problems
State and local correctional facilities are not required to file Medicaid applications for people in prison, who are not permitted to file applications on their own behalf. Medicaid applications take 90 days to process so waiting until release from prison to apply means:
· many use emergency rooms at an exorbitant cost to cities, who pay 100% of cost.
· some self-medicate to minimize their pain – this can fuel recidivism.
· serious mental health disabilities and severe physical pain go untreated because only two weeks of medication is provided.

What Will Help
· Application for medical assistance through Medicaid be filed for everyone confined to a state or local correctional facility 90 days before their release.
· A03924 (Aubry) would require this.

Problems with Registration/Voting

NYS Election Law determines:
· a resident of New York cannot vote while incarcerated or on parole.
· Persons with convictions can vote while on probation, even if convicted of a felony.
· Persons convicted of a felony automatically regain the right to vote after serving the maximum time to which they were sentenced or upon their discharge from parole, whichever occurs first.

Those entitled by law to vote find registration difficult. Local boards of election, not familiar with the voting rights of those who have served time, bar them from registering and voting.
· A recent survey conducted by two non-partisan election reform research groups indicates one-third of NYS’s 63 local boards of elections are misinforming New Yorkers about their voting rights.
· Twenty four local boards of elections answered incorrectly or did not know if a person on probation was eligible to vote, while 20 local boards illegally requested additional documents before allowing an individual to register

What Will Help
A bill is pending (Assemblymember Wright) which educates formerly incarcerated persons about their right to vote.

(5/2006)