BUFFALO, N.Y. — Last month, convicted murderer and rapist Edward Kindt escaped from parole supervision in Dutchess County and Cattaraugus County. Sheriff's deputies arrested him at a family member's house in Salamanca, the same area he committed his crimes.

"It's not clear at this point but according to parole officers, it looks like the hands of the court and the parole officers are tied to the point where he's facing a maximum of only 30 days in jail, where as in the past they would have had the ability to hold him much longer," Assemblymember Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, said.

Wallace said Kindt, who did not make a scheduled office report, was off his GPS monitor and had a previous violation, highlights issues with the current parole system. In 2021, the state Legislature passed the Less Is More Act, which restricted the use of incarceration for technical violations, bolstered due process, provided for speedy hearings and allowed parolees to reduce their period of supervision by 30 days for every 30 days they go without a violation.

"In my opinion at the time and now even more so, I felt that it went a little bit too far and it tied the hands of the parole officers," Wallace said. 

She is the sponsor of legislation to amend Less Is More, increasing penalties for absconding, and allowing parole officers and the judicial system more discretion to incarcerate people in violation who could pose a danger to communities.

"It's in everyone's interest to make sure that this individual does well,” Wallace said. “We don't want to see him go back to jail or her go back to jail. We don't want to see another offense get committed and we also want to make sure the community is safe so we should be talking to the professionals on the ground.”

The Public Employees Federation, which represents parole officers, says they weren't consulted when lawmakers passed Less Is More. It supports Wallace's bill.

"I think the difficulty is, from the beginning, because they never came to us as the people on the ground that do the work and asked for our guidance, they had many misconceptions given to them by the advocates in regards to actually what's happening with the violation process," parole officer and union field representative Gina Lopez said. 

Wallace and PEF said the Kindt case is not the only one legislators should look at as they consider amendments.

"New information comes to light and it shows that maybe some of the things were great but maybe we need to tweak it along the way and that's what I would suggest that this is,” she said.

In Rochester recently, police arrested two parolees in connection with a deadly triple shooting, one of which had violated his terms of supervision for allegedly riding a stolen scooter less than a month earlier.