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| Bill would suspend early-release program |
| By statesmanjournal.com |
| Published: 02/10/2010 |
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The controversial early-release program for state prison inmates approved by the 2009 Legislature would be suspended until July 2011 under a bill passed Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 1007, which cleared the Judiciary Committee by a 3-2 vote, calls for the Secretary of State's Audit Division to conduct a wide-ranging review of so-called "earned time" for prison inmates. The audit, in part, would examine whether the state Corrections Department has complied with laws, policies and procedures in administering the earned-time program. Committee approval of SB 1007 followed months of scathing criticism of Oregon's expanded early-release program, primarily by crime-victims advocates and law enforcement leaders. A sponsor of the bill predicts that it will satisfy most critics of the law approved by the 2009 Legislature. But the bill was denounced Tuesday by Steve Doell, the president of Crime Victims United of Oregon. "This is nothing but a political ploy," he said. "This so-called timeout for earned time needs to be permanent." Doell complained about what he described as the Legislature's mishandling of the early-release issue. "This has just been one of the greatest follies I've ever seen the Legislature do," he said. "Unfortunately, it's a folly that has caused a lot of system pain and a lot of emotional and human pain. It's just been a disaster." The early-release law approved by the 2009 Legislature boosted to 30 percent from 20 percent the amount of time many prisoners could have shaved off their sentences. It was designed to prune $6 million in prison spending. Lawmakers allocated the projected savings to other public-safety needs. Critics have complained about sweeping problems, including clogged court dockets because of a flood of resentencing hearings, renewed anguish for crime victims and hastened prison departures for violent offenders. Since last summer, nearly 3,500 inmates in Oregon's 14,000-inmate prison system have been approved for accelerated early releases by judges. About 770 others have been denied. A "timeout" in the expanded early-release program is necessary to conduct the early-release audit and to tighten inmate eligibility for 30 percent sentence reductions before they resume in July 2011, said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Prozanski, who pushed the original legislation that expanded earned time for inmates, described SB 1007 as a good-faith attempt to fix problems spotlighted by critics. "I think it's going to satisfy the vast majority of people," he said. "When you think about what has been brought to us, we've had two things: one option was just to outright repeal, the other was to put a list together and let the program continue. What we've done is kind of a hybrid between the two."br> Read More. |
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