Bill > S779

This bill proposes several key changes to the parole system in Massachusetts: 1. It requires that at least three members of the Parole Board have at least five years of experience in fields like psychiatry, psychology, social work, or substance use disorder treatment, with one being a licensed mental health professional. This is to ensure the Board has relevant expertise. 2. It establishes a presumption of parole at a prisoner's first eligibility date and subsequent review hearings, unless the Board can show clear and convincing evidence that the prisoner would not remain at liberty without violating the law. The Board must use structured, evidence-based parole guidelines and a validated risk assessment tool in making this determination. 3. It mandates that the parole guidelines, risk assessment tools, and scoring methods be publicly available, and requires the Board to validate these tools every five years and make adjustments to prevent disparate impacts. 4. It limits the Board's ability to revoke parole for technical violations without first trying intermediate sanctions, and requires the Board to keep and publicly report detailed data on parole decisions. 5. It expands parole eligibility for prisoners serving life sentences, with some exceptions, and requires the Board to hold public hearings on these cases. The overall intent is to make the parole system more evidence-based, transparent, and focused on facilitating successful re-entry.

Justice

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/S779