N.Y. to list parolees on Internet

ALBANY, N.Y. - The names of inmates soon to be eligible for parole from New York state prisons for violent offenses are available on the Internet. 

A New York City-based crime victim's advocacy group, Take Back New York, is posting the information which it is getting for free from the state Department of Correctional Services. 

In addition to inmates' names and parole eligibility dates, inmates' current prisons are listed as well as the chief offense they were convicted of, the county they committed that crime in and the minimum length of their sentences. Inmates are broken down by the violent offenses they committed - arson, assault, burglary, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, rape, robbery, sexual abuse and sodomy. 

The site describes the New York state Division of Parole and whom citizens should contact with comments on inmates eligible for freedom. 

"Usually with the criminal justice system, criminals kind of fall off the radar screen," Take Back New York founder Joe Diamond said. "With their names on the Internet, we can keep a constant spotlight on them and when they are coming up for parole the public can voice an opinion." 

The Internet site can be accessed at www.parolewatch.org. 

Data about upcoming parole dates has always been public information in New York state, but it has not been available before on the Internet. Diamond said the first data his group has posted is about inmates eligible for parole in April 1998. 

"The reason we picked April was to do an effective effort at informing the parole board (about an inmate) you need several months," Diamond said. 

Ron Kuby, a New York City defense lawyer, derided the Web site as "www.rotinjail.com." 

"In theory, we put people in prison to rehabilitate them and parole is a reward for rehabilitation," Kuby, a protégé of the late William Kunstler, said. "Somebody puts his time to good use, maintains a good record, reforms himself ... and then a bunch of idiots who know nothing about him except for his crime inundate the parole board with e-mail. 

"Some people should be paroled and others probably should not be, but this system is designed to sabotage the work of the parole board." 

About 20,000 inmates are paroled from state prison each year and about 10,000 are turned down. Customarily, inmates are held for at least two more years when they are turned down for parole. 

Just over half the state's 69,000 inmates are serving time for violent crimes. 

Tom Grant, a spokesman for the Division of Parole, said parole boards will not be unfairly influenced by people responding to information in Diamond's Web site. 

"People probably said that when telephones were introduced," Grant said. "We get information about parole matters in many ways, by phone, by letter, by Fed Ex, by telegram. This is just one more way to gather information about an inmate." 

Currently, the division does not have the capability of receiving electronic mail but a system is being developed, Grant said. 

New Jersey is the only other state where the names of potential parolees are posted on the Internet, Diamond said. 

He has big plans for his Web site. In addition to making more information available about some prisoners' crimes, such as press clippings, Diamond said he wants to expand it nationwide. 

By The Associated Press