To reduce the number of offenders with probation violations resulting in a prison sentence, the Division of Probation Services should implement a technical violations program that focuses on these offenders and encourages them to become compliant with probation supervision.

Clarify the statute and mandate that parolees receive credit for the time spent in jail pending a technical parole revocation.

The Commission supports the Department of Corrections' effort to establish a technical violations unit with the goal of enhancing consistency, preserving public safety, and reducing parole revocations for technical violations.

Since implementation of evidence-based practices requires the reallocation of existing state resources, and because research shows that incentives are a powerful and important method to modify behavior, business practices should be amended to accomplish the following:

 

To allow for enhanced release planning and services,  DOC case managers, time computation staff, and members of the parole board should schedule for release a certain category of offenders up to 60 (class 4 and 5) or 30 days (class 6) prior to MRD. This earned release time is available for individuals serving a sentence for non-person conviction crimes* who meet the following criteria:

Those individuals released in this manner will be classified by DOC as earned releases (not discretionary or mandatory releases). The parole board retains discretion over the final release decision.

 

Note that additional earned time will move up the date that the individual becomes eligible for community corrections, and this may reduce the size of the prison population. Any savings that results from the application of earned time from these changes in practice should be placed in a designated fund for recidivism reduction programming.