Eddie Lee Mays
Mays would become the last person to be executed by "Old Sparky", New York State's electric chair at Sing Sing prison. The State Electrician was Dow Hover. The electric chair had been the sole method of execution in the State since 1890 (hanging had been abolished in 1888). In 1965, the State of New York repealed the death penalty, except for cases involving the murder of a police officer. Although the legislature never fully repealed the death penalty statute, and the state even expanded it in 1995, there were no further executions because of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 and the New York Court of Appeals in 2004.
Alternatives to imprisonment
New York City, the largest city in the United States, has created important alternatives to incarceration (ATI) program for its prison system. Judges have the option of sending those with misdemeanors or felonies to this program instead of giving them a prison sentence. The program has four categories: general population, substance abusers, women, and youth. The program has a 60% success rate, which is relatively high. Offenders who fail the program receive a mandatory prison sentence, which gives them good incentive to succeed. Those who don’t succeed tend to have a past with incarceration. As the biggest city in the United States, New York City is often a trendsetter for other cities. This program could be the first of many in the United States, which could help lower incarceration rates.
Incarceration alternatives in the State of Maryland
Maryland started with the goal of reducing the state's prison population. They developed a legislative reform package that was projected to reduce the state's prison population by 14 percent and save $247 million over the next decade. The Justice Reinvestment Act signed into law by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in May of 2016 has advanced research-based sentencing guidelines and the policies that govern corrections in the state. By reducing the number of people in the state's prison population, they are also reducing the number of children in the state which have parents that are incarcerated. These policy changes have a direct effect on the lives of these children. The Justice Reinvestment Act made changes to mandatory minimum drug penalties and it put caps on the prison sentences that can be imposed for technical violations of supervision. Certain low-level offense are handled by an administrative parole process for nonviolent offenses. Maryland examined and researched why alternative sentencing is needed and one of the main reasons is because it discovered that nonviolent crimes accounted for most prison sentencing.