Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
03/13/2008 09:00 AM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
Audio | Topic |
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Start | |
HB284 | |
SB153 | |
HB296 | |
HB286 | |
Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ | SB 153 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HB 296 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HB 286 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HB 88 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | TELECONFERENCED | ||
= | HB 284 | ||
HB 296-EXTENDING BOARD OF PAROLE CHAIR MCGUIRE announced the consideration of HB 296. 10:04:42 AM MICHAEL SICA, Staff to Representative Bob Lynn, said HB 296 extends the Board of Parole for another eight years, as recommended in the legislative audit report. SENATOR FRENCH requested a description of what the board does. MR. SICA said its primary responsibilities are to determine prisoner suitability for discretionary parole and setting conditions for that. They also hold revocation hearings. KATHY MATSUMOTO, Executive Director, State Board of Parole, Anchorage, said the board has about 1,200 cases on active supervision at any given time. There were 497 hearings, and the board set mandatory parole conditions for 800 offenders who are released into supervision. The board sees quite a number of people who are incarcerated and who request an early release. Those hearings are conducted throughout the state, and some are conducted electronically because the board can't always travel. The five members of the board are very busy. They conduct preliminary hearings for those on parole supervision who get arrested and consider if they need to be incarcerated pending a final hearing, or if there are any options for releasing them back into the community. The board has a lot of contact with the Department of Corrections and victim groups. The board works with transition programs to help offenders stay out of jail. It has an active role in helping protect the public and working with offenders to make them productive citizens. 10:09:06 AM SENATOR FRENCH asked what percentage of discretionary parole requests the board grants. MS. MATSUMOTO said last year it was 57, or 40 percent of the people seen by the board. SENATOR FRENCH asked if only 110 people asked for discretionary parole release and 57 were granted. MS. MATSUMOTO said the board saw about 140 individuals and granted parole to 40 percent and denied it to 46 percent. There are some who the board was not prepared to make a decision on. CHAIR MCGUIRE asked about parole at the federal level. SENATOR FRENCH said it may be that a person can win discretionary parole in the federal system. Why is there such a high rate of discretionary parole? He noted recent incidents of people released and committing other crimes, and the community has zero tolerance for that. He acknowledged that the board is under a mandate to look closely at each set of circumstances, but "folks in my community are hostile to individuals who get out of prison and then commit another crime." 10:11:36 AM MICHAEL STARK, State Board of Parole, Juneau AK, said he is in Fairbanks at a board meeting. Discretionary parole hearings are only a small part of the board's duties. They are only 28 percent of the hearings that the board conducts. There are probably hundreds of prisoners who are eligible for parole that don't bother applying because they don't believe it will be granted. "And in most cases, they're probably right." It is only those with the most promising records that even seek a discretionary parole, although there are exceptions and those are denied by the board. Parole is granted to persons with the most impressive records and are very good risks in the community. That is borne out because only a very small handful of discretionary parolees commit crimes. Technical violations are more frequent. The board has the same concern that constituents have; the board feels that its client is the people of Alaska, and its primary obligation is the protection of the public, and secondarily it wants to assist offenders in succeeding in the community. Almost all offenders are out in the community eventually, "and we want to make sure that they have the tools to succeed." 10:14:00 AM SENATOR FRENCH asked about success rates. PAT DAVIDSON, Division of Legislative Audit, Juneau, said there was a review and the report is in the packet. The review looked at the risk factors that the parole board uses for making decisions and tested those based on parole revocations. For people with the lowest category of risk, the board granted the highest percentage of paroles. The highest risk got the lowest percentage of discretionary paroles. Running those numbers against parole revocations, "we saw the correlation that we had hoped to see." Those with the lowest risk had the lowest rate of revocations. There was not a sufficient apples-to-apples comparison when trying to compare the revocation rate between discretionary parolees and mandatory parolees. The evidence suggests that discretionary parole revocation rates are lower than those with mandatory parole. The audit report asked the board to put out more information so that the public can see it. The board concurred with that recommendation. 10:17:08 AM SENATOR BUNDE said it seems logical. The board cherry picks those with the greatest potential of rehabilitation. MR. STARK said anyone who gets a sentence of two years or longer, except repeat sex offenders, gets out on parole automatically for the amount of good time that they have earned - a third off for good time for those who follow the rules. So they are supervised on mandatory parole for the amount of good time they have earned, and the board has no say in that, and they are much more likely to violate their parole than the discretionary parolees. SENATOR BUNDE said the good-time carrot should be looked at. 10:19:21 AM SENATOR BUNDE moved HB 296 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, HB 296 passed out of committee.
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