Judges may be given discretion in probation sentencing, Brooklyn attorneys welcome change
The New York State Legislature has passed a bill to amend the penal law and the criminal procedure law to allow state judges some leeway in probation sentences.
Presently, adult defendants can be given a minimum five-year probation for felony crimes and three years for misdemeanors. The new bill, S4664/A4582, would allow judges to sentence probation periods of three, four, or five years for some felonies and to give two- or three-year probation sentences for misdemeanor offenses, depending on the defendant’s circumstance. For some misdemeanors, probation terms can be as little as one year.
“I believe judges should have more discretion,” Brooklyn criminal defense attorney Howard Schwartz told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “Law in general, and criminal law in particular, was designed to apply to hundreds of thousands of people, but sentences are fashioned for individuals.” The new legislation, still awaiting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature, “focus[es] on people who need probation the most when they need it,” Vincent Schiraldi, New York City’s probation commissioner, told the New York Law Journal.