HB 91 - EXTEND BOARD OF PAROLE Number 515 CHAIRMAN GREEN announced the next order of business was House Bill No. 91, "An Act extending the termination date of the Board of Parole; and providing for an effective date." He invited Representative Porter to present the bill. Number 519 REPRESENTATIVE PORTER, sponsor of HB 91, explained, "This bill extends the existing parole board for four years. I think it probably does not have to be articulated extensively what would happen if we didn't extend the parole board. People otherwise eligible for discretionary parole would not get out, and our Corrections problems would be further exacerbated, and those on mandatory parole would walk without any conditions, which isn't a very healthy thing, either." REPRESENTATIVE PORTER stated, "The only difference between the bill and the recommendation of the legislative audit report is the time. And they recommended a longer time. I wish we could make it the longer time. This going through this every four years seems a little bit silly, but it is a statutory requirement that it can only be extended for four years at a time." Representative Porter noted that Bill Parker, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, was available to answer questions. Number 586 REPRESENTATIVE ETHAN BERKOWITZ said, "I'd just note the optimism of putting a zero fiscal note on this in the expectation that we probably won't have more criminals coursing through the system." REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE advised there was a substantial fiscal note. REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ acknowledged he should have said "unchanged." Number 614 REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CROFT said he was curious why the time was four years. He inquired whether the enabling statute had ever been looked at in terms of change. He commented, "It did seem silly that we couldn't at least go the additional two [years] that the audit report recommended." Number 621 REPRESENTATIVE PORTER responded, "I guess it's a balance of the theory of not binding future legislatures and having the opportunity to ask questions if issues do come up about programs in a timely fashion. There's a balance between one and the other, and four years seems to be statutorily what everybody arrived at for just about everything." CHAIRMAN GREEN commented it was a point well-made. He asked Donna White, Acting Executive Director of the Board of Parole, if she wished to testify; Ms. White indicated she would answer questions. Number 645 REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said, "Maybe it's because I'm as old as I am that I see great changes happening from year to year to year to year. And when you put in something in place, and you don't change it until you get here, you have a bigger change to address. And so, if there's something that comes up in the system, or new modern methods or new things, because we live in a changing world, that if you make it too long, you close the door to looking at and making those changes. ... It would be really nice if we had time to just look at everything every year, but we don't. So every four years to take a look at it is certainly wise. But we certainly need to have an open mind, because there may be a better way of doing business than this. We never know until we get there from here." REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ said Representative James's comments seemed more the product of wisdom than age. CHAIRMAN GREEN noted although Margot Knuth from the Department of Corrections had signed up to testify, she had left. Bill Parker, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, and Donna White, Acting Director of the Board of Parole, were present to answer questions. Chairman Green asked if there were questions; there were none. Number 717 REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE made a motion that HB 91 move from committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note. Number 727 CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there was any objection. There being none, HB 91 moved from the House Judiciary Committee.