Governor calls on Mississippi Legislature to change parole laws
JACKSON (WCBI) – According to WLBT News, the state’s parole laws could get changed if Governor Tate Reeves gets his way.
Within his executive budget recommendation, he points to two elements of the parole law he wants changed.
“Give us more tools in the toolbox to make sure that we keep the people that need to be behind bars behind bars,” said Reeves.
The first part of the law he wants to be changed is presumptive parole.
It allows for parole without a formal hearing, provided certain criteria are met.
Reeves says it should always be on a case-by-case basis for the sake of public safety.
“The big problem with this presumptive parole is that we’ve never tried it,” noted State Public Defender Andre De Gruy.
State Public Defender Andre De Gruy said two provisions protect against the Governor’s concerns.
“First, the victim who is on record and has to be notified can request a hearing,” he explained. “And if they do, then this takes that takes them completely out of out of the presumptive parole. Or law enforcement…the law enforcement where the person wants to parole to has to be notified. They can request a hearing. So, this isn’t simply you come in, you get a case plan, you go through the process and then on some certain day you walk out there. There are safeguards already in place.”
House Corrections Chair Rep. Becky Currie doesn’t want to see the state take steps back.
“I don’t think that it would behoove us to go back to putting them before a parole board for a 10-minute Zoom conference with,” noted Currie. “I don’t know that they would make a better decision than the people that are on the ground with them every day and they know who’s ready to go out into the world and who’s not.”
Reeves also wants to see changes to the definition of technical violations. Currie says she knows what probably spurred that.
“We had a case recently that we were not able to revoke his parole because of a technical crime,” she said.
Convicted killer James Williams was out on parole when he was arrested on DUI charges and later released again.
De Gruy says both of the Governor’s proposed changes need to be discussed because of potential consequences.
“This would push us back to pre-2014 and and more people in prison that that probably don’t need to be there,” he noted.
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