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March 11, 2008

Lawmakers to consider bill on inmates' good behavior

PROVIDENCE -- The House Judiciary Committee this afternoon will hear a bill that would let more inmates lop time off their sentences for good behavior, a move driven in part by a search for state budget savings and also to reduce prison crowding.

The committee is slated to meet at about 4:45 p.m. at the rise of the House, in the State House's room 205.

Bill H 7751 would change the state’s good-behavior provision, which lets inmates earn up to 10 days off the end of their sentences for each month in which they have no disciplinary problems.

The change would expand the eligibility to inmates serving sentences of more than one month, so long as they are not serving life sentences. Current law says inmates must be serving at least six months to be eligible.

Sexual offenders would be specifically excluded from qualifying for the program, under the bill.

The news release says the bill will be amended to expand a program that allows patients to reduce sentences by five days for finishing a "job-training, educational, drug-abuse treatment or behavior-modification program in prison."

The state would save an estimated $1 million next year and up to $22 million over the next 10 years, the news release says.

A.T. Wall, the Department of Corrections director, has said it would allow release of about 211 prisoners next year, which would help Rhode Island to avoid reaching an inmate population cap of 4,051, according to the release. The inmate population stood at 4,000 in the fall "and is on track" to hit 4,147 next year.

“At a time when we need to look for savings, this is a reasonable place to look. Rhode Island is currently fairly conservative when it comes to letting prisoners earn reductions in their sentences for good behavior,” state Rep. John Patrick Shanley Jr., D-South Kingstown, said in the statement. “We’re not talking about opening the prison gates and turning convicts out in the street -- we’re talking about letting individuals earn time off at the end of their sentences.

Shanley stated the proposal would not only save money but give prisoners incentive to follow the rules and make the most of rehabilitation opportunities at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.

Read Journal coverage of prison population reduction plan.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 1:50 PM | Permalink

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