| Which story is inherently more
incredible: 1) That Attorney General Dennis Vacco is letting New
Yorkers cast their advisory vote via the Internet on whether
imprisoned child-killer Joel Steinberg should be paroled next
month; or 2) That Steinberg is eligible for parole at all?
We pick No. 2. In fact, Steinberg - who murdered his
illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, almost exactly a decade ago
and was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in a riveting
trial - first came up for parole two years ago. When the parole
board sensibly refused to return him to the streets (he showed
no remorse for his crime), Steinberg actually sued the board in
an effort to gain his release.
The attorney general thinks a strong anti-parole response
from the public (www.oag.state.ny.us) will add heft to his case
before the parole board, which meets behind closed doors.
We applaud Vacco's effort, because public outrage can be an
excellent weapon against weak-kneed parole boards. But parole
boards, we submit, are not the root of the problem. Parole
itself is the problem.
The Steinberg case offers a good example why. Steinberg
became eligible for parole after serving the minimum of his
8-to-25-year sentence. He comes up every two years until 2004,
when, after serving two-thirds of his sentence, he will almost
certainly be released. (Under the old law, a felon would earn
one-third of his time off for good behavior.)
Gov. Pataki pushed through important - though still
inadequate - reforms in 1995, in which parole for repeat
offenders was abolished. Under his "truth in
sentencing" law, someone |
"Tireless activists like Joe
Diamond of Parole Watch have succeeded in turning parole reform into a
national issue"
|
sentenced to 25 years can earn only
one-seventh of their time off for good behavior, instead of
one-third.
Unfortunately, parole can still be offered to first-time
offenders - even vermin like Steinberg. The governor wants to
end parole for all violent offenders. So does the state Senate.
The roadblock? You guessed it: Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and his criminal-coddling Democratic Caucus. They still
insist that first-time killers, bank robbers, rapists,
kidnappers, etc. still must be given a second chance. (To get it
right, perhaps?)
Thanks to prison construction that was the handiwork of
former Gov. Mario Cuomo, there should be jail cells available to
hold New York state's malefactors as long as necessary -
particularly given the crime drop. If there are not, then build
more.
The case for abolishing parole for all violent offenders is
so self-evident that further debate on the issue seems
pointless. That's why tireless activists like Brooklyn's Joe
Diamond of Parole Watch have succeeded in turning this into a
national issue: Parole was one of those bizarre reform schemes
that has now become a perverse kind of government entitlement.
It's a system that allows the bad guys to get away with it -
a means for convicted criminals to elude, at least in part, the
full weight of the punishment visited upon them by a jury and a
judge.
But let's skip the question of punishment and deal strictly
with the common good. Would anyone in 2004 feel comfortable
living next to just-released "first time offender"
Joel Steinberg, who snorted coke and went off to a dinner with
law clients while Lisa lay dying on the floor of his apartment? |
