House votes to suspend early release

FEBRUARY 17, 2010 | BY ALAN GUSTAFSON | statesmanjournal.com

The Oregon House voted Tuesday to suspend Oregon's expanded early-release program for state prison inmates until mid-2011.

House approval of Senate Bill 1007 came on a 37-23 vote. It goes to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is expected to sign it into law.

Proponents of the legislation said a 16-month "timeout" will allow the Legislature to fix flaws in a 2009 law that increased the amount of time that inmates could get shaved off their sentences. The original legislation increased inmate "earned time" from 20 percent of the sentence to 30 percent.

In recent months, the expanded early-release program has become a target of criticism from law enforcement leaders and crime-victim advocates, who say that it clogged courts with resentencing hearings, reopened wounds for crime victims and hastened prison departures for thousands of criminals.

The 2009 law was supposed to apply only to inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes, but lawmakers have acknowledged that they mistakenly left serious crimes off the list that disqualified inmates from reduced sentences.

SB 1007 expands the number of crimes ineligible for consideration of the extra earned time, adding about 30 crimes to the list.

The bill also directs the Secretary of State Audits Division to review the earned-time program and issue a report to the Legislature before the suspension of 30 percent earned time ends in July 2011.

During the moratorium on 30 percent earned time, prisoners will be eligible for 20 percent cuts in their sentences.

Legislative debate on SB 1007 largely split along party lines in both the House and the Senate, drawing support from Democrats and opposition from Republicans.

Democrats said the legislation solves "unintended consequences" of the Legislature's 2009 expansion of earned time.

"We listened to those who raised raised legitimate concerns," state Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, said Tuesday. "This bill ensures that only nonviolent offenders get increased earned time and takes a timeout so we can study the impacts of earned time on our criminal justice system."

House Republicans favored repealing the extra 10 percent earned time and reinstating the maximum 20 percent earned-time law that previously had been in place for 20 years.

"The Attorney General, Oregon State Sheriff's Association, Oregon Chiefs of Police and the District Attorney's Association have begged this institution to repeal this law," said Rep. Tim Freeman, R-Roseburg. "Unfortunately, this plea has fallen on deaf ears in the Legislature."

Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, criticized the planned reinstatement of 30 percent earned time for 2011-13, saying it defies the wishes of Oregonians who favor truth in sentencing.

"Where is truth in sentencing in this state?" she asked. After boosting earned time in 2009, legislators now are amending the law to "save face," Thatcher said.

The 2009 law was designed to save $6 million by pruning incarceration costs in the current budget. Lawmakers allocated the projected savings to other public safety programs.

Since the summer, about 3,520 inmates in Oregon's 14,000-inmate prison system have been approved for accelerated early releases by judges. Their sentences were reduced by an average of 55 days. About 800 other inmates were denied the increased sentence reductions.

SB 1007 "strengthens controls over earned time and gives us an opportunity to continue to review and analyze its effectiveness while we are in this timeout period," said Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland.

Critics of the legislation disagreed.

"The Legislature can't fix the damage that has been done to crime victims by the expansion of the earned time law," said Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany.