Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Only the court that sentenced you has the power to make parole a condition of your sentence. The Department of Correction does not have the authority to added parole to a defendant�s sentence. Currently, Burglary in the First Degree carries mandatory period of parole supervision of five years. However, this was not always the case and depending on when you where convicted, parole supervision might not have been mandatory. I believe that mandatory parole supervision was added on August 6, 1998. The issue becomes were you convicted before August 6, 1998 or after. If you were convicted prior to said date then the Department of Corrections clearly had no authority to alter your sentence. If you were convicted on or after August 6, 1998, then the issues becomes did you enter a plea or were you convicted after trial? If you took a plea with the understanding that the court was not going to impose parole then you have grounds to appeal the imposition of supervised release (parole). This is based on a contract theory, simply that, you negotiated the terms of your sentenced and if you had known that parole was part of the deal you might not have agreed to the plea. I am not so sure you can appeal if you were convicted after a trial on reasoning that you did not have a negotiated bargained for the sentence. Either way you need to have the matter brought back before the court and for that I think you are going to need an attorney. DISCLAIMER: This answer to a short question is provided solely for general informational purposes and based on general legal principles and court practice. This answer does NOT constitute legal advice, create an attorney-client relationship, or constitute attorney advertising.