Delaware Senate Bill 195 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: Introduced on June 7 2016 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2016-06-07 - Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate
Pending: Senate Judiciary Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

The Truth-in-Sentencing Act of 1989 (“the Act”), 67 Del. Laws, c. 130, abolished parole in Delaware. In place of parole, the Act instituted the sentence modification process in order to allow some defendants to be considered for early release. However, as the Final Report of the Joint Sunset Committee on the Board of Parole pointed out in 2013, this process has been used sparingly in recent years, largely because the Act does not allow a defendant to submit a sentence modification request. Instead, the Act requires the Department of Correction to initiate such requests. As a result, only about 15-30 defendants per year, out of about 3,600 eligible defendants, are actually able to be considered for a sentence modification. This Act implements the Joint Sunset Committee’s 2013 recommendation that defendants be given the opportunity to submit an application for a sentence modification to the Board of Parole.

An Act To Amend Title 11 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Sentence Modifications.

Sen. Margaret Henry [D]	Rep. Charles Potter [D]	Rep. Stephanie Bolden [D]	Sen. Harris McDowell [D]
Sen. Karen Peterson [D]	Rep. Paul Baumbach [D]	Rep. Helene Keeley [D]	Rep. John Kowalko [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2016-06-07	Senate	Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/0163b7ff8d11f88c85257f3700548f0d?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+195/$file/legis.html?open