Exclusive | NY’s parole-reform law — backed by Mamdani — allows 85% of ex-cons who commit new crimes to roam free

The monster who admitted to killing, molesting and burning an elderly Queens couple was roaming the streets because of a little-known change to the state parole law championed by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Jamel McGriff, an ex-con sex offender on parole, failed to register his address this summer — a violation that would have landed him back in the slammer three years ago. 

But “Less Is More” parole reforms enacted in 2022 allowed him to stay free.

The legislation keeps parolees out of the clink while a lengthy court process plays out to determine their guilt or innocence on the new charges, and also created a three-strike policy giving them a pass on their first two violations.

The measure passed two years after Albany enacted the equally disastrous bail reform laws, which are now blamed for the revolving door of justice that lets career criminals back on the streets. But it did not grab the attention of the public and media that bail reform did.

The parole bill was authored by lefty Phara Souffrant Forrest, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and co-sponsored by her socialist comrade, Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, and dozens of others.

“Our system is built for life-long punishment, not rehabilitation,” Mamdani said at the time. “Less is More is a vital step towards ensuring that when our neighbors return home from prison, they can stay at home. I’m proud to be part of the passage of this bill.”

Mamdani did not return messages from The Post asking him to explain his position on parole reform — or about this week’s horrific Queens murder.

A plank of the DSA’s soft-on-crime platform specifically calls for the end of imprisonment for parole violations. 

The bill was pushed through by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader
Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), and signed into law by Gov. Hochul.

The parole change has unleashed violent criminals on NYC streets.

Out of 20,968 ex-cons on parole who committed new crimes in New York state last year, 17,825 — a shocking 85% — were freed while facing pending new charges, a Post analysis of Division of Criminal Justice Services data found.

In 2021, before the law went into effect, out of 17,633 parolees committing new crimes, 10,121 — or 57% — remained free.

“Bail reform isn’t nearly as bad as parole reform,” said a critic who works in the criminal justice system who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. “These are already proven felons.”

Before “Less is More,” a sex-offender registry violation would have been enough for a parole officer to have a suspect like McGriff detained pending the outcome of a hearing.

McGriff’s case is even worse because he was the prime suspect in at least two armed robberies in the Big Apple this summer, police said.

The parole reforms also raised the burden of proving a parole violation from a “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence.”

“It made it very difficult to revoke someone’s release on parole,” Rafael Mangual, a legal fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Post.  

“Parole is a privilege, but unfortunately, New York state lawmakers in their infinite wisdom have chosen to reorient the criminal justice system around the interests of defendants and not so much around the interest of victims,” Mangual said.

“The reform has certainly eroded the potential protections for the public,” he said.

The number of people locked up after violating parole since the reforms were enacted fell from 2,332 in 2021 to 1,437 in 2024, a 38% drop, according to the most recent Department of Corrections data. 

“The intended effect of reform was to make it more difficult to revoke parole releases, even for individuals who are facing charges, and it’s rooted in the misguided belief that ‘mass incarceration’ is driven in large part by parole revocations,” Mangual said.

McGriff, 35, was on parole after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence for robbery, burglary and sex assault when he allegedly slaughtered Frank and Maureen Olton inside their Bellerose home in cold blood.

Other shocking examples of violent ex-cons allowed to roam the streets of Gotham despite committing new crimes while on parole include:

• Jeffery “Zay” Mackenzie, released on lifetime parole in 2022 after serving 21 years for fatally blasting a woman at a Brownsville laundromat. He has since been arrested at least four times on drug dealing charges, including on June 4 when he was allegedly caught red-handed in Greenwich Village peddling rocks of crack cocaine in mini-Ziploc bags, police said. The case still before the courts.
• Lateef Green, a homeless man arraigned for attempted murder April 18 in an unprovoked brass knuckle knife attack on a Bronx straphanger. Green, 50, served just under four years behind bars in connection to a March 2016 hate attack that broke another man’s nose in Manhattan. He was PAROLED in 2021 and WAS arrested for turnstile jumping two months before the subway attack, which is still pending.
• Waheed Foster, an ex-con vagrant accused of beating a woman in a Queens subway station in 2022, was free despite being arrested while on parole weeks before the caught-on-video attack. The career criminal’s rap sheet included killing his grandma when he was 14.
• Charles Rowe, on lifetime parole after nearly 35 years’ hard time for the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old Queens girl, was charged with sexually assaultING a woman and raping another in 2023, despite being arrested while on parole a few months prior for car theft — and blowing off his court appearances twice. 

“A lot of crimes today may not have happened if we had violated parolees,” said the system insider. “Before, if your parole officer comes to your house and you’re high they could lock you up for that.”

Mangual pointed out that the reforms were “essentially taking the teeth out of any potential sanction for failing to comply.”

“The fact they’re on parole is not going to deter them in the same way that it might have prior to the reform,” he said. “And . . . the public is going to suffer offenses that might not have otherwise been committed.”