October 25, 2019

Senator Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins

28 Wells Avenue, Building #3
Yonkers, NY 10701

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie

1446 East Gun Hill Road
Bronx, NY 10469

Dear Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie,

On August 13, 2019, Valerie Gaiter died in the custody of the New York State prison
system of untreated cancer. She was 61 years old and had served nearly 40 years in
prison on a 50-year-to-life sentence. At the time of her death, she had served more time
than any other woman currently incarcerated in New York State.

During her time in prison, Ms. Gaiter worked hard to reckon with and repent for the
irreparable harm she caused as a 21-year-old in Brooklyn in 1979. She earned multiple
college degrees, ran the photography program in the Bedford Hills visiting room, and
trained service dogs for wounded veterans. Despite her efforts to transform herself and
those around her, she was never given a meaningful opportunity for release.

Ms. Gaither would not have been eligible for parole until her 71st birthday, 10 years after
her death. Sentences like hers are commonplace in New York State. There are currently
more than 1,000 people serving life without parole or a virtual life sentence (a minimum
of 50 or more years) who are all but guaranteed to die in prison. In fact, Ms. Gaiter is just
one of at least 675 older people who have died in state custody since January 2011.

We, alongside Ms. Gaiter’s family and loved ones are devastated and outraged by her
passing. We call on you to take action and commit to passing Elder Parole (S.2144) this
legislative session.

Elder parole is a common sense, evidenced-based, and fiscally responsible way to save
lives, reunite families and communities, and reinvest millions of taxpayer dollars into
much needed public resources. The bill affords people in prison aged 55 and older who
have served 15 or more years in prison an opportunity to go before the Parole Board. The
bill does not automatically release people from prison, but instead allows the Board to
determine whether or not an elder applicant is suitable for release. The bill offers hope
and a second chance to those otherwise sentenced to die in prison.

Further, Elder Parole in New York State must include all older people who have already
served decades in prison, regardless of their crime or sentence. Exclusions based solely
on the nature of a person’s crime only promote notions of punishment and revenge, and
offer no benefit to public safety. In fact, they hinder it. Returning elders are mentors and
leaders in our communities and help us build the safe and nurturing world we want.
We the undersigned, who represent the broad and diverse statewide community
advocating for an end to mass incarceration will not support any form of Elder Parole that
offers hope only to some and a death sentence for others. We will not be complicit in the
further loss of life behind bars and we ask you to join us in this effort.

You must make New York a national leader for fairness and justice by passing Elder
Parole in its current Senate form when you return to Albany in January. The lives of
countless people depend on it.

Sincerely,

Advocates Delivering Love

Advocates for the Incarcerated at Fordham University Law School
American Friends Service Committee, New York
American Friends Service Committee, New Jersey
Alabama-CURE
All Things Harlem
Alliance for Quality Education
American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch Program
Amnesty International Brooklyn Local Group 27
Appellate Advocates
Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325
Beacon Prison Action
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund
Brooklyn Defender Services
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Campaign to End the New Jim Crow
Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration
Center For Community Alternatives
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Justice, Columbia University
Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU Law
Certain Days Collective
Citizen Action of New York
Citizens Against Recidivism
Citizens for Clean Water
Close Rosies
College & Community Fellowship
Colorado-CURE, Inc.
Columbia County Bail Fund
Communities in Partnership
Community Service Society of New York
Cornell Women's Decarceration Practicum
Correctional Association of New York
Critical Resistance New York City
Discovery for Justice
Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims
Drug Policy Alliance
Equality for Flatbush (E4F)
Exodus Transitional Community Dutchess County
Exodus Transitional Community New York City
Families for Freedom
Felony Murder Elimination Project
Feminist Research on Violence - NYC
Fordham Law Advocates for the Incarcerated
Fordham Law School's Criminal Defense Clinic
Fordham University
Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition
Hour Children
Human Rights Watch
Immigrant Defense Project
Incarcerated Nation Collective
Indivisible Brooklyn
Indivisible Harlem
Innocence Project
Interfaith Prison Partnership
Inwood Indivisible
Jewish Voice for Peace NYC
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
John Brown Lives!
Justice and Unity and the Southern Tier (JUST)
Justice Roundtable
JustLeadershipUSA
Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice
Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Legal Action Center
Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo
Legal Aid Society
LGBT Community Center of New York City
Life after release
Life for Pot
Make the Road New York
MEN TALK
MomsRising
Mount Lebanon Baptist Church
NAMI Huntington
National Lawyers Guild - NYC Chapter
New Hour for Women and Children LI
New York Campaign For Alternatives To Isolated Confinement
New York Civil Liberties Union (ACLU of New York)
New York County Defender Services
New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault
New York State Council of Churches
No IDC NY
No New Jails NYC
NYC Books Through Bars
NYC Jericho Movement
Parole Preparation Project
Physicians for a National Health Program - NY Metro
Prison Action Network
Release Aging People in Prison Campaign
Rise and Resist
Rise Up Kingston
Riverside Church Prison Ministry
Rockland United
Sex Workers and Allies Network
Showing Up for Racial Justice NYC
Social Justice Committee, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie
St. Stephen's United Methodist Church
STARZ CLOSET
State Vs Us Magazine
STEPS to End Family Violence
The Bronx Defenders
The Bronx Freedom Fund
The Fortune Society
The Osborne Association
The Sentencing Project
The Village Zendo
Time for Change Foundation
Trans Prisoners Coalition
United Neighborhood Houses of New York
United Voices of Cortland
Upper West Side Action
Uptown Progressive Action
Urban Justice Center
VOCAL-NY
WESPAC Foundation, Inc
Westchester for Change
Witness to Mass Incarceration
Women & Justice Project
Worth Rises
Youth Arts New York
Youth Represent