Senate looks at standardizing minimum prison terms, repealing conditional release

By Noah Symes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A group of bills standardizing mandatory minimum prison terms and repealing conditional release provisions was heard by the Senate on Wednesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard three bills, sponsored by Curtis Trent, R-Springfield, Jill Carter, R-Granby, and Joe Nicola, R-Grain Valley, which include identical provisions for restructuring prison time requirements.
Currently, the amount of prison time required to serve before parole is based on the specific charge received. These bills would standardize prison time to a range based on the class of the felony conviction, rather than the specific charge.
Prisoners convicted of class A felonies, such as first-degree murder, would serve at least 60% to 80% of their prison term. As felonies decrease in class, the percentage range decreases as well. This creates what Trent calls a “fixed minimum parole eligibility requirement” for prison time.
Trent said these bills give attorneys, judges, the public and “especially victims,” a clear and predictable outcome.
Locke Thompson, a prosecuting attorney from Cole County, testified in favor of the bill and said this would lead to more transparency.
“When I’m trying to tell the victim how long their attacker is going to go away, unless there is a minimum set in the specific statute, it’s really, really hard, if not impossible,” Thompson said.
Conditional release occurs once a set percentage of a prison sentence has been served, and it mandates that a prisoner be released under supervision unless there is a reason barring their release. All prisoners have a required period of up to five years at the end of their sentences, during which they can be supervised under conditional release until their time is served. All of the bills heard on Wednesday would eliminate mandated conditional release.
Mallory Rusch, executive director of Empower Missouri, an anti-poverty advocacy organization, testified against the bills. She said these bills go too far in repealing conditional release.
“Doing away with conditional release without simultaneously reforming the state’s parole process, we believe, would have a lot of unintended consequences,” Rusch said.
Rusch added that conditional release is where prisoners can undergo supervised rehabilitation and acclimate to living in a community outside of prison.
Rusch also said she is concerned about the legislation’s reliance on parole boards
“The proposed changes to the sentencing structure rely heavily on the parole board functioning fairly and effectively,” Rusch said. “Without any reforms being made to that process, while implementing these bills, we think it’s going to come at a very large cost to the state.”