Update: May 23, 2024 — On Wednesday, the Senate corrections and finance committees voted to move forward with Martuscello’s nomination. On Thursday, the Senate confirmed him, along with a member of the State Commission of Correction, by a vote of 37 to 19.

It's been 11 years since New York’s prison system had a proper leader. State legislators are being given roughly 48 hours to consider whether to appoint one.

Daniel Martuscello III has been leading New York’s prison and parole agency in an acting capacity — that is, without confirmation from the state Senate — for a year, having taken over for his boss, who ran the agency from a similar legal purgatory for a decade. Without the usual public announcement, Governor Kathy Hochul nominated Martuscello for the permanent job on Monday, legislators told New York Focus. Senate staff scheduled his initial confirmation hearing for Wednesday morning.