A change in crime policy?
Guest Columnist
By George Winner

I'm confident many of you will remember the campaign slogan that

swept Governor Eliot Spitzer into office a little over a year ago, "Day One: Everything Changes." He reiterated this promise in his Inaugural Address on January 1, 2007 when he said, "I stand before you to announce that Day One of our time for change has arrived."

So looking back over the past 365 days of the Spitzer administration, it's fair to try and sort out just what changes the governor had in mind.

One change, in particular, has recently come to light. In fact some of us were startled to read news reports that state Division of Parole statistics show that during the first year of the Spitzer administration the number of violent criminals released from prison has skyrocketed.

I'll get more specific on this development shortly, but first let's briefly recall where we've been over the past decade. The state Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) reported last September that a decade-long, steady decline in crime in New York State continued for the first half of 2007. The statistics revealed double-digit decreases in rapes, robberies and motor vehicle thefts. Violent crime, overall, was down 6 percent statewide.

Many of us noted with a great deal of pride that the state's 2007 statistics complemented a simultaneous report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which New York ranked as the safest large state in America for 2006 and the fifth-safest state overall. After all, part of the reason for this increase in safety has been the increased emphasis on law enforcement and on crime-fighting legislation, programs and services enacted in New York since 1995.

Governor Spitzer took note of last fall's good news on crime by saying, "Government has no more fundamental role than to protect the public, and I am pleased to see crime decreasing across the state. Safe communities are vital to the social and economic fabric of the state and we will continue working tirelessly with law enforcement officials to achieve lower crime rates and to target problem areas."

So it's a little disconcerting to now discover that during the first year of the Spitzer administration, state parole boards interviewed 1,249 "A- 1" violent felons and released 225, or 18 percent, of them. This represents a huge increase in violent felon releases. And remember that we're talking about A-1 felons -- those who have been convicted and incarcerated for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping or arson in the first degree.

In fact one of the felons released in the past year had his parole

bid rejected just two years ago because the parole commissioners decided that his criminal past demonstrated a "propensity for extreme violence and a disrespect human life."

What's going on here? What's this change all about? The State Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee is trying to find out.

Here's what Governor Spitzer's commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, Denise O'Donnell, told us at a recent public hearing in Albany: "I cannot answer your question as to why there has been an increase in the number of individuals convicted of A-1 felonies released on parole during the past two years."

For some of us, her answer's not good enough. There's been quite a change - not insignificant by any means - in the number of violent felons released from prison under Governor Spitzer. Why? We believe it could pose a serious public safety threat. Many crime victims are concerned. We don't want to see a diminishment of the public safety and security gains we've achieved over the past decade.

There are others, however, who believe that these increases pose no threat -- in fact, they say, the reason for the rise is because previous parole boards were too strict. Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prisoner advocacy group, said that the organization has long believed that parole release rates under former Governor George Pataki were far too low and that denials were done for political reasons.

One Democratic state senator said that "it's quite possible that previous administrations were not doing their job" by failing to release more violent inmates on parole.

Rest assured we haven't hard the last of this debate, in light of the parole release rates of violent felons under Governor Spitzer. We have a responsibility to the citizens of New York to more fully scrutinize this apparent shift in criminal justice policy.

The Senate will continue to examine these new parole release rates.

We'll be reviewing a possible overhaul of parole board protocols. Releasing more violent felons from prison may very well be a change none of us bargained for.

The writer serves in the New York state Senate representing the 53rd District.