HB 535
General BILL by Edwards ; (Co-Introducers) Cortes, J.
Aged Prison Inmates; Requires DOC to consider needs of inmates older than 50 years of age & adopt health care standards for that population; provides for supervised conditional elderly release program; provides criteria for program eligibility; authorizes arrest of inmate who has been released under supervised conditional elderly release program; defines “elderly & infirm inmate”; permits inmates 65 and over to serve less than 85% of their sentences if they receive certain forms of release & requires them to serve a lower minimum percentage of their sentences; expands eligibility for conditional medical release to include elderly & infirm inmates.
Read in full from PDF File (20 pages): https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/535/BillText/Filed/PDF
Effective Date: 7/1/2017
Last Action: 3/7/2017 House – Introduced -HJ 70
Track this Bill: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/0535/ByVersion
Rep. Katie Edwards
katie.edwards@myfloridahouse.gov
Tallahassee office: 850-717-5098
District office is: 954-838-1372.
The Second Chance Effort Project, Inc., is asking for your help in attaching an Amendment to HB535 which will include most all of the inmates waiting on parole that are over 50 and have done their mandatory quarter. The amendment reads as follows:
STATUTORY AMENDMENT PROPOSAL
TITLE: ELDERLY PRISONER SECOND CHANCE RE-SENTENCING ACT
Summary: The purpose of this effort is to afford those prisoners who are 50 years of age or older and who have served 25 years or more of their prison sentence imposed for crimes committed before 10/1/83 and those prisoners of eligible age who committed capital crimes after 10/1/83 and before 10/1/95, except prisoners sentenced to death, a second chance at living a law-abiding life in society.
This initiative brings sentencing uniformity one step closer for all inmates incarcerated in the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC). It also reduces healthcare costs for inmates in FDOC, slashes the costs for annually operating the Florida Commission on Offender Review (FCOR) and returns those agencies’ slashed funds to the State’s general revenue funds. This initiative will amend FS, Ch. 921 as it relates to Sentencing Guidelines and Ch. 947 as it relates to parole.
(1) All inmates who are 50 years of age or older who were sentenced before the 1984 sentencing guidelines, including those inmates convicted of capital crimes committed after the effective date of the 1983 sentencing guidelines and before 10/1/95 and who became eligible for parole after serving 25 years, will have their presumptive parole release date established and calculated as an expiration of sentence date under the constitutionally determined 1984 sentencing guidelines, not to exceed forty (40) years of imprisonment from the date originally sentenced by the trial court followed by (3) years of probation. No sentence will be increased above that being currently served.
(a) All applicable statutory gain-time will be recalculated and reflected in the new expiration date in accordance with applicable statutory gain-time provisions under FS, Ch. 944. A probation violation could result in the forfeiture of all earned gain-time.
(b) All unforfeited incentive and meritorious gain-time earned during the prisoner’s incarceration will be used to mitigate the sentence expiration date in accordance with applicable incentive and meritorious gain-time provisions under FS, Ch. 944.
(2) This measure minimizes personnel positions and work load of the FCOR by reducing the duties and functions of that agency relating to the parole of eligible inmates 50 years of age or older who have served 25 years or more in prison for crimes committed prior to 10/1/83 and those prisoners of eligible age who committed capital crimes after 10/1/83 and before 10/1/95, except prisoners sentenced to death.
(3) This measure also reduces operational and health care costs for housing and treating elderly inmates in the FDOC.
(4) This law will take effect on 10/1/2017.
To show your support for this Amendment to HB 535, contact Rep. Katie Edwards.
For more information, contact Second Chance Effort Project: bdeangelo@brighthouse.com
SB 606: Aged Prison Inmates
GENERAL BILL by Clemens
Aged Prison Inmates; Authorizing defendants 65 years of age or older who receive favorable determinations from the commission under discretionary and revocable release programs to serve less than 85 percentage of their sentences; requiring the Florida Commission on Offender Review, in conjunction with the department, to establish a supervised conditional elderly release program; authorizing the commission to approve an inmate’s participation in the program under certain circumstances, etc.
Read in full from PDF File (20 pages) https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/0606/BillText/Filed/PDF
Effective Date: 7/1/2017
Last Action: 3/7/2017 Senate – Introduced -SJ 79
Track this Bill: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/00606
Sen. Jeff Clemens
clemens.jeff.web@flsenate.gov
District: (561) 540-1140
Tallahassee: (850) 487-5031
Contact us at 904-568-8231 if a group from your County is willing to attend and speak in support of any or both of these Bills during the 2017 Session in Tallahassee, FL. You can track these Bills by signing up at their respective links shown above. Let us strongly support these Bills, they’ve been a long time coming but change gonna come!
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Florida House: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx
Florida Senate: https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/