ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Gina Lopez, a parole officer with the New York State Department of Corrections, has been supervising parolees in the Rochester area for 15 years and is the Rochester leader for the New York State Parole Officers Division 236.

“Parole officers have their hands tied," said Lopez.

The “Less is More” Act, signed into law in September by Gov. Kathy Hochul, is meant to improve justice and safety in city jails, as well as ensure that the Department of Corrections focuses its resources on helping people successfully complete community supervision and avoid returning to custody or supervision.

“Listen, I don’t like to see a parolee get charged with a new violent felony when I knew that I could maybe address certain behaviors before he’s now back in the system,” she said.

The law also created a “30 for 30” provision that allows for a release of supervision. The parolee can earn 30 days credit off their sentence for every 30 days they are not in violation status.

“So based on ‘Less is More’ in the '30 for 30,' when it was signed into existence, what it did was it lifted warrants for parolees who had delinquent time, and it basically erased their delinquent time and allowed them to qualify for '30 for 30,' including if they had outstanding criminal charges within the court system,” said Lopez. “And even those that were receiving '30 for 30,' some of our parolees were not compliant with parole supervision. Some were not compliant with treatment. Some were not compliant with sex offender treatment or even domestic violence.”

Lopez says the parole supervision release involves about 21% of the full population that parole has on full supervision in the Rochester/Monroe County area. That’s about one in five parolees getting their sentence reduced up to two years. 

While some might think having fewer parolees would make the job of a parole officer easier, the parole officers who spoke with Spectrum News 1 say that’s not so.

“We don’t believe it’s going to make our job easier,” said Wayne Spence, president of Public Employees Federation. “We think that the caseloads are going to increase and it actually puts us more at risk.”

Spence fears the move will not help as Rochester has seen a rise in violent crime.

“Rochester. Buffalo. Troy. New York. The City of New York are in for — are probably going to be in for — a very bloody summer if we don't get this right,” said Spence. “I hope I'm wrong.”

And Lopez believes victims were not considered.

“One of the issues I have with ‘Less is More’ is it forgets the victim of the crime,” she said. “When you have a perpetrator and they go for sentencing, victims are notified. When they’re released on parole supervision, victims are notified that they’re going to get released to parole supervision. But none of the victims are ever notified that they are going to receive their '30 for 30.' So that includes sex offenders. There are sex offenders that got to '30 for 30' and none of the victims that were the victims of their crime were told that they were actually going to get their sentenced reduced.”

The union is calling for amendments to “Less is More,” but supporters believe it will lead to less mass incarceration.

The DOCCS told Spectrum News 1 on Thursday that the initial review of approximately 8,000 individuals is complete, and that the department expects the discharge notification to be done by the end of the week.