Last Tuesday, Mary Beth Anslow returned to jail. She was released on January 19 after serving only three months of a one year sentence on the decision of the Rensselaer County Local Release Commission. She was later ordered back to jail by Supreme Court Justice James B. Canfield as he decided that the commission’s ruling was illegal.
Anslow received a one year sentence after being convicted for operating an illegal day-care center in which a 3-month-old baby died. Gaspar Castillo, Anslow’s attorney, is trying to appeal the decision and his motion for her to be released as the appeal is considered was denied by Judge John Lahtinen. Her attorney can still make arguments on such a motion to a panel of five jurists.
As these events were happening last week, the New York State Senate passed two new laws related to the Anslow case. The first law would make cases of endangering the welfare of a child a felony crime with a maximum sentence of four years in state prison if the child endured serious injury or death. The second law would eliminate conditional release commissions across the state.
