NY Lawmakers Proposing Guaranteed Health Coverage, College Tuition For Wrongfully Convicted
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The state of New York should guarantee health coverage and college tuition to people exonerated after being imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit, according to two legislators.
Citing increasing cases of people wrongfully convicted, and it's the state's responsibility to correct these errors and help those people move on, Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Dan Quart said Wednesday. The Manhattan Democrats said their legislation would also permanently seal those criminal records and authorize reimbursement of attorney fees for work vacating or reversing a wrongful conviction.
"There are several components of the legislation and all of them are automatic. The person who is exonerated doesn't have to go to court to secure these benefits, they are automatic upon the person's release," Quart told WCBS 880.
The proposed legislation would provide lifetime health, dental and mental health insurance coverage with state-paid premiums and cover tuition and fees to state university or city university schools and preserve the statutory right to sue for other compensation from the state. Recipients would still be eligible for job training, counseling and drug treatment, like other released inmates and parolees.
"It's the state's responsibility to do everything possible to correct those wrongs for whom the criminal justice system has failed and in many instances shattered the lives of those who were wrongfully convicted," Hoylman said.
The National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan Law School listed 1,736 exonerations since 1989. They include a record 149 nationally last year, with 17 in New York.
"Incarceration exacts a physical and psychological toll that can be compounded when someone is imprisoned for a crime they did not commit,'' Hoylman said. "New York has a moral obligation to help those for whom the criminal justice system has failed.''
A draft of their legislation says the benefits won't be taxable or reduced by any state claim for the cost of housing them in prison.
New York's 17 cases where wrongly convicted defendants were set free last year included 11 out of Brooklyn and two from Erie County, the registry showed. Others were from Monroe, Saratoga and Westchester counties. One was from the federal court in Brooklyn.
The registry showed 218 New York exonerations since 1989, seven in federal courts.
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