BILL NUMBER: S1921

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to establishing emergen-
cy release protocols during a time of crisis

 
PURPOSE:

To authorize the department of corrections to release certain incarcer-
ated individuals in an emergency.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds a new section 807 to the correction law identifying popu-
lations eligible to be released in emergency situations. Also clarifies
that individuals released under these emergency protocols shall remain
under community supervision and shall remain subject to relevant commu-
nity supervision provisions.

Section 2 provides an effective date.
              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

COVID-19 hits hardest in dense population centers or clusters where
people gather in close proximity. We have all been told to keep at least
six feet away from other people, to wash our hands, clean door knobs and
other hard surfaces that people touch with anti-viral cleaning agents,
work from home, avoid all non-essential human contact. None of this is
possible in prisons where nearly all movement is group movement, and
where people live in open dorms with as many as 60 beds or in tiny cells
with poor ventilation. Hundreds of correctional staff and incarcerated
individuals have contracted the virus and, at the date of this writing,
ten people have died. The prison population is on average older and
sicker than the general population, so we can expect more deaths.

This bill, which would apply to any emergency situation in which lives
were in danger, gives permission to the Commissioner of DOCCS to order
parole release for people who are within two years of the end of their
sentences, who have a home to go, and who do not pose an unreasonable
public safety risk. Lowering the density of the prisons would allow
officers and incarcerated individuals to better deal with the disease,
to have more personal space, to be able to maintain order and hygiene.
It also mandates the parole release of pregnant women and women living
with children in prison nurseries, unless such women pose an exceptional
public safety risk. It further gives the commissioner the discretion to
release older people who have served at least half of their sentence; in
the current situation, those people are especially vulnerable to the
virus.

This bill would cut through red tape and would allow the decision to
release incarcerated individuals to rest with the Department, the agency
best suited to evaluate their dangerousness or suitability for release.
Clearly if an individual violates the conditions of his or her parole
release, he or she would be returned to prison.

This bill would allow the commissioner to release incarcerated individ-
uals in order to save the lives of the vulnerable and to reduce the
prison population in order to more efficiently and safely manage correc-
tional facilities at a time of crisis.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S. 2782 of 2021-22: Referred to Crime Victims, Crime, and Corrections;

S. 8244-A of 2020: Committee Discharged and Committed to Codes

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Will save the state money.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately