In most cases, it doesn’t matter. Contrary to popular myth, fewer than half of prisoners are ever eligible for parole in New York. For the rest, the sentence is basically fixed. In theory, any prisoner can ask the governor to pardon or commute his sentence, but historically those grants have been extremely rare. In court, a prisoner can argue that his conviction was wrongful or his sentence illegal, but there is almost no way to argue in New York that a sentence, while legal, is simply too long and should be cut short. (One important exception is the new Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which allows a sentence to be reconsidered if the prisoner was him or herself the victim of domestic abuse and can show that this abuse was a factor in the criminal conduct.)