New York legislature seeks to expand parole after paroled inmates commit murder and rape

New York legislature seeks to expand parole after paroled inmates commit murder and rape
No return: Connecticut killer Jean Jacques remained in the U.S. because his native Haiti wouldn’t readmit him. (Image: Norwich Police Department)

“A man who was convicted of raping & killing a 10-year-old was released on lifetime parole in NYC. He promptly went on to allegedly commit more violent crimes & remained free due to the state’s restorative justice laws. He’s now charged with another rape,” notes Andy Ngo.

He was originally sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old, but was released on parole in 2022, reports the Post-Millennial. During a trial for “auto theft just months later,” Charles “Rowe skipped out on numerous hearings but was nonetheless allowed to remain free”:

An ex-con on lifetime parole for raping and killing a child has been charged with sexually assaulting an elderly woman in Queens. Charles Rowe, 56, allegedly committed the sexual assault just months after he avoided punishment for stealing a vehicle.

Rowe has been described as the “poster child for parole violation,” with his story highlighting the implications of New York Governor Kathy Hochul‘s Less Is More Act, which makes it harder to send criminals back to jail for violating their parole….

Rowe allegedly raped the 69-year-old victim on March 13 outside the same U-Haul storage facility he was accused of stealing a van from in December 2022. “If you don’t do what I want I am going to kill you,” Rowe allegedly told the woman, before raping her and fleeing the scene.

Just over a month later, he returned to the facility and allegedly assaulted a 61-year-old woman after she caught him going through her belongings. “Let’s not turn this into a murder,” he said, before slashing her in the neck and chest and punching her in the face.

Rowe was eventually arrested and hit with a slew of charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, predatory sexual assault, first and second-degree robbery, weapons possession, burglary, and petty larceny.

Now, New York’s Senate is pushing to free even more dangerous offenders, making parole available to people who were sentenced to life without parole for their killings, such as serial killers who have reached age 55. Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal boasts, “Good news from Albany for incarcerated New Yorkers: Fair & Timely Parole (S497A) passed its Senate Committee. Elder Parole (S2423) now has 33 co-sponsors—the majority of the Senate.” Elder parole would allow even the worst killers to be paroled at age 55.

“Sure, there’s been a sharp increase in crime throughout New York State over the last few years; but incarcerated New Yorkers (a/k/a the mostly violent felons with a high likelihood of recidivating populating the state’s prisons)” are getting “more good news” at the expense of public safety, laments Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute.

Last year, a transgender murderer was arrested for killing again at age 83 after two prior murder convictions. Thus, it’s wrong to claim that inmates swiftly age of out of crime, or that inmates can safely be released just because they have reached a particular age, as supporters of New York’s Elder Parole bill claim.

Advocates of decarceration falsely claim people age out of crime after ten or fifteen years, and thus should be released. The George Soros-funded Law Enforcement Action Partnership claimed to the Virginia legislature that if “people entered prison over a decade ago,” “their continued incarceration does very little, if anything, to maintain safety.” It made that claim in support of a bill, SB 378, that would have allowed inmates to seek release after 10 or 15 years regardless of what crime they had committed. Another supporter of the bill claimed that “people age out of crime by their late thirty’s [sic].”

Returning to crime after being released is typical for inmates, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. It documented that problem in a 116-page report titled “Recidivism of Federal Violent Offenders Released in 2010.” Over an eight-year period, violent offenders returned to crime at a 63.8% rate. The median time to rearrest was 16 months for these violent offenders. So, most violent offenders released from prison committed more crimes. Even among those offenders over age 60, 25.1% of violent offenders were rearrested for committing new crimes.

There are many examples of killers murdering people yet again after being paroled. One example is Kenneth McDuff, the “broomstick killer.” At the age of 19, after being paroled, McDuff and an accomplice kidnapped three teenagers. He shot and killed two boys, then killed a girl after raping her and torturing her with burns and a broomstick. Later, after being paroled yet again, he murdered additional women — as many as 15 women in several different states.

Some murderers continue to kill even at an advanced age. At the age of 76, Albert Flick killed a woman, stabbing her at least 11 times while her twin sons watched. He had previously been imprisoned from 1979 to 2004 for killing his wife by stabbing her 14 times in front of her daughter.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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