HOUSE MOVES TO RESCIND EARLY-RELEASE LEGISLATION

JEFFERSON CITY - Just two years after lawmakers moved to ease sentencing
for some nonviolent offenders, the Missouri House yesterday went in the
other direction.

State representatives gave first-round approval to anti-crime measures that
eliminate a provision allowing some nonviolent felons to seek early release.

Under existing law, offenders in prison for the first time who have been
convicted of nonviolent Class C or Class D felonies can seek probation or
parole after serving 120 days. That measure was adopted in 2003 as a remedy
for Missouri's burgeoning prison population, which has grown by 11 percent
in the last five years.

After the law was passed, though, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that it
applied retroactively, prompting Attorney General Jay Nixon to predict that
thousands of inmates would be released.

So far, that prediction hasn't panned out. According to the state
Department of Corrections, 913 inmates have petitioned for early release
but only 37 have been successful. Lawmakers still appear eager to overturn
the provision.

The bill that passed yesterday includes a section that eliminates the
early-release provision, and a separate bill to do the same thing was
scheduled to be taken up for debate as early as this week.

Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson, said he is concerned about crime victims and
said other provisions in the law already allow inmates to appeal for
probation after a certain length of time.

"My belief is, if a jury or a judge . found you guilty and sentenced you to
five years, that was the intended sentence for you," he said.

Lipke voted against the early-release provision in 2003, as did Rep. Jeff
Harris, D-Columbia. Harris has been a frequent critic of the provision,
saying today that it didn't make Missouri safer.

"We send the wrong message when we allow child molesters and meth cookers
and burglars to seek release from prison . after only serving 120 days," he
said.

Class C or D felonies can include crimes such as child molestation,
forgery, drug possession or burglary. Though lawmakers were trying to stem
costs with the early-release provision, Harris said, there are "significant
administrative costs" to the state's handling hundreds of early-release
petitions.

Harris is the co-sponsor of a separate bill repealing the provision, which
could be debated this week.

Legislators often include provisions in multiple bills to increase their
chances of final passage.

The Columbia representative is also the sponsor of legislation that expands
the crime of endangering the welfare of a child to include producing meth
in a home where a child lives. The crime now only describes cooking meth in
the presence of a child.

The adopted bill must receive another vote in the House before moving on to
the Senate.