There is no cure for the stupid-in-power: Chief NYS State Judge Janet DiFiore has just undermined prison security in the state, badly

New York State Department of Corrections has invented a system of "earning good time" for prisoners.

The system is mutually beneficial.

Prisoners comply with certain requirements of DOCs - by not being involved in violent acts while in prison, following directions of prison authorities, complying with different "programs", including mental health programs, like "sex offender treatment", for example - and in return for that prisoners earn "good time", being able to be released earlier than their maximum sentences on parole.

That has just changed - because of just one stupid decision by New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore.

As of November 27, 2018 New York prisoners have no incentive to not be involved in violence in prison, to follow prison regulations and - for sex offenders especially - to be engaged in the so-called "sex offender treatment programs", extremely invasive harassment sessions involving polygraphs and penile polygraphs (electrode attached to the prisoner's penis while prisoner is made to watch child porn), disclosing sexual history and preferences not only of the prisoner, but of his sex partners.

All of that was holding up on the flimsy basis that prisoners hoped to get released sooner - by earning "good time".

DiFiore's decision legitimized cheating prisoners out of their good time, for no fault of the prisoners.

A convicted sex offender earned good time, 4 months of it, and was hoping to be released 4 months early.

The Department of Corrections, by law, is supposed to make an effort to help an about-to-be-released sex offender with housing.

But, convicting on coerced plea bargains and under the threat that, if a person does not plead guilty, he will be sentenced to prison, put in general population there and be tortured and killed there, and especially "treating" the untreatable sex offenders is such a lucrative industry in New York - and across the United States - that there are so many sex offenders, and so many municipalities with zoning restrictions prohibiting sex offenders to reside in close proximity with parks, schools and other places where children under the age of 18 "may congregate" (covering about the whole areas of those municipalities) that is practically impossible to find a place for a convicted sex offender to reside.

While residing within such areas may earn a convicted sex offender yet another felony conviction.

So, DOCs either did not want to look for suitable housing for Gonzalez before his release deliberately, wanting him to fail and get convicted for living where he is prohibited to live - because no other housing was available, or did not put enough effort into helping Gonzalez in finding suitable housing.

Because suitable housing was not found, DOCs simply denied Gonzalez the already earned good time and released him at his maximum sentence.

Gonzalez sued.

The case went all the way up to the New York State Court of Appeals.

DiFiore pronounced a decision that DOCs did not have to knock themselves out finding suitable housing for Gonzalez, so it was ok for DOCs to simply cheat Gonzalez out of his earned good time.

Now, DiFiore was a prosecutor all her life before coming to the bench, and for all her career did not have to think to obtain convictions.  As the former NYS Chief Judge (a convicted felon) Sol Wachtler said, one can indict a ham sandwich.  And that is true.

Moreover, one can convict a ham sandwich, too - for a sex offense especially, as long as you:

• publish the charges on the Internet;
• secure contamination of the jury pool - where comments in the media from the time charges are published ask for torturous death of the culprit in prison;
• coerce a guilty plea from a person, without regard of his guilt or innocence, by showing him these comments and telling that he will be raped and killed if he gets into the prison's general population, and that he will be given a break if he "just pleas".

DiFiore, after doing all of the above for her entire prosecutorial career, did not have a need to develop any type of mental acuity, you know, like in a chess game, think about consequences of her decisions at least more than 1 step forward.

So, her no-thinking-required mentality showed, as it always shows when a person with such a mental setup becomes a judge, and the absolute majority of New York State and the country's judges are former prosecutors.

What was the legislative intent to introduce the "good time" credits in the first place?

Not just reintroduction of prisoners into society.

First and foremost - prison security.

So, what did DiFiore do with her decision?  She told prisoners that no matter how much of good time they have earned, in order to be released early from prison, no matter how much humiliation prisoner put up with in the ineffective and unconstitutional "sex offender treatment programs" where sex offenders are coerced to talk to state authorities while their appeals are pending, for example - all of that good time may be taken away, for no fault of prisoners.

In other words, there is no reason to engage in any efforts to earn good time in the first place - you may be cheated out of it anyway.

Good job, Judge DiFiore.

Let's see the next year's safety report from DOCs.  DiFiore's decision can, literally, cost lives of both prisoners and corrections officers.

And that was exactly what the law that DiFiore "applied" through her decision was trying to prevent.