On May 7th, Governor Deval Patrick sent a proposal to the Legislature which will lessen the impact of mandatory minimums and make post release supervision required even for those who wrap their sentences in prison. It is entitled “An Act to Prevent Crime and Reduce Recidivism by Increasing Supervision and Training Opportunities for Inmates."

Regarding mandatory minimum changes, the Governor’s proposal requires that if two thirds of the maximum sentence imposed is less than the mandatory minimum, the prisoner becomes eligible for parole after serving two thirds of the maximum imposed sentence. As most drug sentences under c. 94C are the stipulated mandatory minimum to that plus a day as the maximum, this should provide relief to most convicted of drug offenses. A few sections of chapter 94C with mandatory minimums are not included: §§32C(b) covering certain Class D controlled substances, 32I covering drug paraphernalia, and 32K covering inducing a minor to sell. Additionally, many of the covered offenses carry maximum sentences well in excess of the minimums (e.g. 3-15 years); a person sentenced to a range where the maximum is more than 1½ times the mandatory minimum sentence would not find any relief. Section 8 of the proposed bill appears to make this change retroactive to all those currently serving sentences for these offenses. This should allow such individuals to access pre-release training programs and even minimum security facilities.

The other substantive section of the Governor’s proposal is to add mandatory post release supervision to all sentences, from a minimum of 9 months up to 25% of the maximum term imposed, up to 5 years. This will apply to state prisoners, and will be under the supervision of the Board of Parole. The Board of Parole would be required to determine regulations for this program, and violations of those regulations would be responded to with a variety of sanctions, up to and including revocation of parole. Early termination is possible, if after 9 months the individual is able to demonstrate a successful re-entry regarding housing, employment and any special conditions attached to the parole such as anger management therapy.

Finally, section 3 of the proposal gives the Parole Board life time supervisory authority over sex offenders who are convicted of failure to register., and sections 6 and 7 adjust the law governing lifetime parole for certain sex offenses, as found within c.265 §45, thereby eliminating the unconstitutional vagueness as found by the SJC in Commonwealth v. Pagan, 445 Mass. 151 (2005).

Much of this bill is a replication of last year’s H.5004, without the required reporting of its impact to the legislature, excluding county inmates from the mandatory post release aspect, and the sunset clause all of which had been attached to the post release supervision.