The man who shockingly confessed to the murder, abuse, and subsequent incineration of an elderly couple from Queens had been able to remain free due to an obscure amendment to the state’s parole law. Jamel McGriff, a previously convicted felon and sex offender who was on parole, neglected to register his address during the summer—a breach that, a mere three years prior, would have seen him returned to prison. However, ‘Less Is More’ parole alterations enacted in 2022 enabled McGriff to avoid jail. These revisions permit parolees to avoid incarceration while an extended legal process takes its course to ascertain their culpability or lack thereof concerning the fresh accusations.
The legislative reform also established a ‘three-strike’ rule enabling parolees to avoid penal repercussions for their first two contraventions. The passing of this bill occurred a two-year span after the implementation of equally controversial bail reform regulations in Albany, which have been criticised for perpetuating a cycle that reintroduces habitual law-breakers into daily life. However, public interest and media scrutiny that were heavily aimed at bail reform seemed to glance over this consequentially impactful parole bill.
Phara Souffrant Forrest, a prominent left-leaning figure and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, authored this controversial parole reform and was backed by co-sponsorship from her fellow democratic socialist counterpart, alongside a number of additional supporters. Their stance was firmly rooted in their belief that our system should encourage rehabilitation over perpetual punishment. They considered the ‘Less is More’ strategy to be a significant advancement towards creating a society where those who have returned from prison have a fair chance of integrating back into civilian life.
The successful passage of this bill was facilitated by the then Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, and was subsequently sanctioned into law by the sitting Governor. However, there have been criticisms suggesting that this alteration to the parole legislation has inadvertently enabled violent ex-convicts to wreak havoc once again on NYC’s pedestrians. Statistically, an alarming 85% proportion of the 20,968 parolees who committed fresh offenses in the state last year were allowed to remain at liberty while their new charges were still under consideration.
Contrastingly, before these changes took effect in the previous year, the percentage of parolees who committed new crimes and stayed free was significantly lower, at around 57%. Prior to the ‘Less is More’ initiative, the failure to comply with the sex-offender registry requirement would have been sufficient to warrant immediate detention of a suspect such as McGriff, pending the conclusion of a hearing.
Even more concerning in the case of McGriff was the fact that he was already implicated in a minimum of two armed burglaries that occurred in the Big Apple during the summer, according to the local police reports. The parole amendments have also increased the standard of proof needed to confirm a parole violation from ‘preponderance of the evidence’ to ‘clear and convincing evidence’, exacerbating the issue further.
Available data from the Department of Corrections indicates a significant decline, by 38%, in the number of individuals incarcerated following a parole violation since the enactment of these reforms. This decrease is largely evident from the falling figures from 2,332 individuals in 2021 to 1,437 in 2024.
There is an underlying belief that the reforms are driven by the aim to make it harder to reverse parole releases, even for individuals with pending charges. This argument stems from the perspective that mass incarceration predominantly stems from parole revocations. However, this becomes particularly concerning in cases such as McGriff, where the individual has already had a history of violent crimes.
McGriff, now 35, had been out on parole after having served 17 years of a 20-year sentence for robbery, burglary, and sexual assault when he is believed to have brutally annihilated an elderly couple within the confines of their own home. Sadly, McGriff’s situation is not an isolated incident. Other similarly troubling cases of violent recidivism among parolees have recently surfaced, including those involving individuals like Jeffery ‘Zay’ Mackenzie.
Mackenzie had previously spent 21 years behind bars for the fatal shooting of a woman at a public laundry facility and was granted lifetime parole in 2022. Since his release, he has been arrested no less than four times on drug trafficking charges, and his case continues to be deliberated in court.
Lateef Green, a homeless man who was arraigned for an unprovoked and vicious knife assault on a subway passenger, is another instance. Green previously served nearly four years in relation to a hate-fueled assault in 2016 that had severely injured another person. Paroled in 2021, Green was previously apprehended for jumping a turnstile only two months prior to the subway attack, and that case remains unresolved.
Yet another case involved Waheed Foster, an itinerant ex-criminal accused of assaulting a woman in a Queens subway station in 2022. Despite recent arrests while on parole, Foster was not incarcerated. His criminal history stretches back to his early years, when he was charged with killing his grandmother at the age of 14.
Charles Rowe’s case is another shocking instance that questions the reformed parole system. Despite having a staggering criminal record of almost 35 years for violent assault and murder of a young child in Queens and being on lifetime parole, he managed to evade jail even after being arrested for theft of a car. Later, he was charged with assaulting and sexually abusing another woman. In a disturbing turn of events, McGriff admitted to the horrifying murder and assault of the elderly couple when he was arrested, adding to the mounting concerns about the ‘Less is More’ parole reform.
The post Notorious Criminal Strikes Again: A Dark Side of Parole Reform? appeared first on Real News Now.
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