Florida Senate - 2017                                    SB 1744
       
       
        
       By Senator Rouson
       
       
       
       
       
       19-01506-17                                           20171744__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to the conditional release program;
    3         amending s. 947.1405, F.S.; providing that persons
    4         convicted of a non-capital offense and sentenced for a
    5         life term qualify for conditional release under
    6         certain conditions; requiring that the Department of
    7         Corrections on a specified date review certain records
    8         of persons serving life sentences and compile such
    9         information for the Florida Commission on Offender
   10         Review to use in making certain determinations
   11         regarding conditional release; providing an effective
   12         date.
   13          
   14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   15  
   16         Section 1. Subsection (2) and (5) of section 947.1405,
   17  Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
   18         947.1405 Conditional release program.—
   19         (2) Any inmate who:
   20         (a) Is convicted of a crime committed on or after October
   21  1, 1988, and before January 1, 1994, and any inmate who is
   22  convicted of a crime committed on or after January 1, 1994,
   23  which crime is or was contained in category 1, category 2,
   24  category 3, or category 4 of Rule 3.701 and Rule 3.988, Florida
   25  Rules of Criminal Procedure (1993), and who has served at least
   26  one prior felony commitment at a state or federal correctional
   27  institution;
   28         (b) Is sentenced as a habitual or violent habitual offender
   29  or a violent career criminal pursuant to s. 775.084; or
   30         (c) Is found to be a sexual predator under s. 775.21 or
   31  former s. 775.23; or
   32         (d)Is convicted of a noncapital offense and sentenced for
   33  a term of life,
   34  
   35  shall, upon reaching the tentative release date or provisional
   36  release date or serving 20 years of a life term sentence with no
   37  record of disciplinary violations during that time, whichever
   38  occurs is earlier, as established by the Department of
   39  Corrections, be released under supervision subject to specified
   40  terms and conditions, including payment of the cost of
   41  supervision pursuant to s. 948.09. Such supervision shall be
   42  applicable to all sentences within the overall term of sentences
   43  if an inmate’s overall term of sentences includes one or more
   44  sentences that are eligible for conditional release supervision
   45  as provided herein. Effective July 1, 1994, and applicable for
   46  offenses committed on or after that date, the commission may
   47  require, as a condition of conditional release, that the
   48  releasee make payment of the debt due and owing to a county or
   49  municipal detention facility under s. 951.032 for medical care,
   50  treatment, hospitalization, or transportation received by the
   51  releasee while in that detention facility. The commission, in
   52  determining whether to order such repayment and the amount of
   53  such repayment, shall consider the amount of the debt, whether
   54  there was any fault of the institution for the medical expenses
   55  incurred, the financial resources of the releasee, the present
   56  and potential future financial needs and earning ability of the
   57  releasee, and dependents, and other appropriate factors. If any
   58  inmate placed on conditional release supervision is also subject
   59  to probation or community control, resulting from a probationary
   60  or community control split sentence within the overall term of
   61  sentences, the Department of Corrections shall supervise such
   62  person according to the conditions imposed by the court and the
   63  commission shall defer to such supervision. If the court revokes
   64  probation or community control and resentences the offender to a
   65  term of incarceration, such revocation also constitutes a
   66  sufficient basis for the revocation of the conditional release
   67  supervision on any nonprobationary or noncommunity control
   68  sentence without further hearing by the commission. If any such
   69  supervision on any nonprobationary or noncommunity control
   70  sentence is revoked, such revocation may result in a forfeiture
   71  of all gain-time, and the commission may revoke the resulting
   72  deferred conditional release supervision or take other action it
   73  considers appropriate. If the term of conditional release
   74  supervision exceeds that of the probation or community control,
   75  then, upon expiration of the probation or community control,
   76  authority for the supervision shall revert to the commission and
   77  the supervision shall be subject to the conditions imposed by
   78  the commission. A panel of no fewer than two commissioners shall
   79  establish the terms and conditions of any such release. If the
   80  offense was a controlled substance violation, the conditions
   81  shall include a requirement that the offender submit to random
   82  substance abuse testing intermittently throughout the term of
   83  conditional release supervision, upon the direction of the
   84  correctional probation officer as defined in s. 943.10(3). The
   85  commission shall also determine whether the terms and conditions
   86  of such release have been violated and whether such violation
   87  warrants revocation of the conditional release.
   88         (5) Within 180 days prior to an inmate’s the tentative
   89  release date, or provisional release date, or completion of 20
   90  years of a life term sentence, whichever occurs is earlier, a
   91  representative of the department shall review the inmate’s
   92  program participation, disciplinary record, psychological and
   93  medical records, criminal records, and any other information
   94  pertinent to the impending release. The department shall gather
   95  and compile information necessary for the commission to make the
   96  determinations set forth in subsections (2) and subsection (3).
   97  A department representative shall conduct a personal interview
   98  with the inmate for the purpose of determining the details of
   99  the inmate’s release plan, including the inmate’s planned
  100  residence and employment. The department representative shall
  101  forward the inmate’s release plan to the commission and
  102  recommend to the commission the terms and conditions of the
  103  conditional release.
  104         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.