Bills · 2015-2016 Regular Session
Relating to: allowing certain prisoners to earn time toward early release from confinement in prison. (FE)
Corrections, department of Prison Privacy Sentences and penalties
- Introduced, stopped here
- Passes Assembly, not reached
- Passes Senate, not reached
- Governor signs, not reached
- Law, not reached
Unfamiliar terms? Glossary
What this bill does
Plain-language analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill allows certain prisoners who participate in educational or other
programs to earn time off the confinement portion of their sentences.
Under current law, a person who is imprisoned for a felony he or she committed
on or after December 31, 1999, is sentenced to a bifurcated sentence, with the first
portion of the sentence served in confinement in prison and the second portion served
under extended supervision in the community. A person who is serving a bifurcated
sentence, with few exceptions, must serve the entire confinement portion of his or her
sentence before being released to extended supervision. A person's confinement
portion may be extended if he or she violates a prison regulation. If a person's
confinement portion is extended for such a violation, current law requires his or her
extended supervision portion to be reduced so that the total length of the person's
sentence remains unchanged.
This bill requires the Department of Corrections to identify evidence-based
programs that reduce the rate of recidivism among participants. Under the bill, a
prisoner who is sentenced to confinement in prison for a misdemeanor or for a Class
C to Class I felony may earn time off of the confinement portion of his or her sentence,
at a rate determined by the department, if he or she participates in one or more of
the programs identified by the department.
Under the bill, if a person's confinement period is reduced by the department,
his or her period of extended supervision is increased so that the length of the
sentence does not change.