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Associated Press
5 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Lawmakers offered mixed reviews on proposed parole guidelines
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles is proposing new parole guidelines after state lawmakers voted to withhold funding unless the document was updated as required by law. The advisory guidelines use factors like the severity of offense and the inmate's behavior in prison to create a score to aid in parole decisions. The parole board has come under fire for both low parole rates and how often its decisions deviate from what the guidelines recommend. State lawmakers — frustrated that the board had not fulfilled a requirement of a 2019 law to update the guidelines every three years — put language in the budget requiring the guidelines to be revamped for the board to receive funding. The board this month proposed new guidelines. Members of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee on Wednesday offered mixed reviews of the proposed changes. Republican Sen. Clyde Chambliss, who chairs the oversight committee and was the lawmaker who proposed the budget language, said he was glad to see the board beginning the work. But he said he needed to study the proposed changes before giving an assessment. Republican Rep. Matt Simpson said he liked some of the proposed changes. 'I think it's an important step to make sure that the guidelines are worth the paper they're printed on,' Simpson said. However, others were skeptical. Rep. Chris England, a Democrat, said the board 'magically produced these guidelines that were three years overdue.' 'I think the way that these happened is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever witnessed,' England said. He said there is data from prior releases that could be used to update the guidelines. 'Instead of using that data, it seems like this kind of came out of nowhere because they were threatened with losing funding,' England said. Alabama's parole rate has plummeted over recent years. The percentage of inmates being granted parole fell from 53% in 2018 to a historic low of 8% in 2023. The rate rose back to about 20% in 2024. The board's parole decision matched the guideline recommendation in about 25% of cases in the 2024 fiscal year, according to numbers from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Jerome Dees, policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he is concerned that the proposed changes are based on increasing the conformance rate — how often parole decisions match the guideline recommendation — instead of on a deeper policy analysis. 'It is the equivalent of taking a pop quiz, failing, and instead of digging deeper and seeing what changes you need to make, you just rewrite the questions on the quiz so that it aligns with wrong answers,' Dees said.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama Senate committee rejects bail reform bill that members approved last year
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, speaks to Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 1, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. A bill sponsored by England that would have given judges the power to impose percentage bond payments for pretrial release died in a Senate committee on Wednesday. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A bill that would have allowed people to win release from pretrial detention by paying a partial amount of a bond died in an Alabama Senate committee on Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked on HB 42, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, in a tie vote of 5-5. All the Democrats on the committee and committee chair Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, voted for the bill. The remaining Republicans on the committee abstained or voted against the measure. No member offered a reason for their vote except for Sen. Josh Carnley, R-Enterprise, who said he was voting the way he was after speaking with judges and court officials before he cast his vote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The legislation would have restored three words to the current bail bond statute — 'a part of' — to allow judges to order defendants to pay percentage bonds to secure their release from pretrial detention, which was removed when the Legislature enacted the Bail Reform Act of 1993. 'All the bill does is add back three words to the code that were taken out a few years ago when we passed a bail reform bill,' England said to the committee during the meeting Wednesday. The legislation passed the House with bipartisan support on April 15. It is one of two bills aimed at changing the state's bail system, and the only one that the Alabama Bail Bond Association publicly opposed as it made its way through the Legislature. Chris McNeil, president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association and who owns a bail bond company, suggested that the bill, if enacted, would increase the rates at which defendants failed to appear in court for their cases. England said that those figures are not a fair comparison. England filed the same bill during the 2024 legislative session. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the legislation last year but it stalled in the Senate chamber. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bail reform bills moving through Alabama Legislature in final days of session
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, looks over to a colleague while standing on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 12, 2025 in the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. England is sponsoring a bill that would give judges the power to allow those in pretrial detention to pay a percentage of a bond for release. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Two bills that would change Alabama's bail system are working their way through the Legislature in the waning days of the 2025 session. The Senate Judiciary Committee hosted a public hearing Wednesday for HB 42, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, which gives judges the authority to allow defendants to pay a portion of their total bond to be released from pretrial detention. HB 410, sponsored by Rep. Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, modifies the composition of the Alabama Professional Bail Bonding Board, expands the exemptions for the fees that bail bond companies must pay the court, increases penalties for bail jumping and adds more regulations for bail bond companies when they operate in another state. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A message was sent to Stringer Monday seeking comment. HB 42 has passed the House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House is scheduled to vote on HB 410 on Tuesday. England's bill adds three words, 'a part of' back into an Alabama statute that were removed when the same Legislature enacted the Alabama Bail Reform Act of 1993. The removal of the words meant judges in the state could not allow defendants to pay a percentage of their bond to get release from pretrial detention. 'What that translates into is a large amount of money that would normally go to the court system, instead of going to the court system, it goes to a bondsman,' England said to the committee Wednesday. People can secure their release after an arrest if they pay a bail bond company. The premium, which is typically 10% of the total amount of the bond, is paid to the bail bond company, which then must ensure the individuals go to their court appearances. The money that people pay when released on a percentage bond would be retained by the court and kept if defendants fail to appear for their court dates. The Alabama Bail Bond Association has been a vocal opponent of the bill, speaking out against the legislation at a March public hearing and the House Judiciary Committee considered it then and eventually approved the bill a week later. Victor Howard, vice president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association and bail bond company owner, said that enacting the legislation would reduce accountability for defendants to appear for their court dates. Chris McNeil, the president of the Alabama Bail Bond Association, suggested Monday in an interview that the rates that people would not appear for court would increase. He also cited records from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts saying that people who paid cash to be released from pretrial detention in 2022 and 2023 had a failure to appear (FTA) rate of 55%. 'The court just can't function when you have a failure to appear rate of 55%,' McNeil said Monday. 'The bonding companies were averaging about a 14%-15% failure to appear rate. And were able to trim that rate by returning defendants back to court.' England told the committee that the numbers do not present a fair comparison to percentage bonds. 'The numbers are obviously going to be off because there are more people on smaller offenses with cash bonds versus somebody who is on a large bond with a bondsman,' England said to the committee on Wednesday. 'Obviously, there is going to be a higher number of FTAs on smaller cases, traffic tickets, because they all count.' Jerome Dees, policy director from the Southern Poverty Law Center, supported the legislation. 'The vast majority of times when there was an FTA that was ultimately secured, and the defendant showed up in court, it largely was due to law enforcement bringing that individual in and not the bail bond company,' he said to the committee on Wednesday. 'That is not to say that it never happened, but the vast majority of time it was law enforcement bringing that particular individual in.' McNeil said in an interview Monday he supports HB 410, Stringer's bill. 'It expands the Alabama Professional Bail Bonding Board by adding a sheriff to the board, adding a layperson, so I think that is very important,' he said. It also states that any fees that bail bond companies pay to the court that have not been deposited within 90 days and that have an expiration date 'shall be deemed uncollected' and will no longer hold the bail bond company responsible for making the payment. The bill also exempts bail bond companies from fees that the courts or district attorneys have not attempted to collect past one year from the original due date. HB 410 also adds more conditions such that the bail bond company will not pay a fee, known as forfeiture, to the court when in cases that the defendant fails to appear in court. McNeil said the bill would cancel that forfeiture payment if someone was not placed in the National Crime Information Center and failed to appear in court, or if the bail bond company brings back a defendant that the jail refuses to accept. The bill also addresses instances when an individual travels out of state and enhances the penalty for bail jumping, going from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $7,500 fine. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alabama House bill would add criminal penalty to law banning organ harvesting
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, presents a bill in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 25, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved legislation that would criminalize medical examiners who retain the organs of people without family approval. HB 383, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, to take organs without a family's permission. This is the second year that England filed legislation pertaining that adds a criminal penalty to the practice of illegally retaining organs in the state without notifying the deceased individual's next of kin. The House Judiciary Committee approved a similar bill last year, but it stalled in the House chamber. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The legislation is in response to a lawsuit that alleges that the Alabama Department of Corrections and the University of Alabama at Birmingham had an agreement that gave the university permission to retain the organs of those who died in prison. Families of the deceased said they were not informed of the arrangement or that their loved ones' body parts were taken without their permission.. State code already prohibits medical examiners from retaining organs unless specifically allowed by the Governor's Office, the Alabama Attorney General's Office or the district attorney in the case, but the law did not outline any sanctions. 'Basically, the warden was giving UAB permission to keep those organs in violation of a very clear prohibition,' England said to the committee during the meeting. Montgomery Circuit Court Judge J.R. Gaines, presiding over the lawsuit, denied a motion by the University of Alabama System and the ADOC earlier this month to dismiss the case. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama House of Representatives passes bill restoring partial bond payments for release
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, speaks to Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 1, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House passed legislation he filed to allow judges to issue percentage bonds. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House of Representatives Thursday approved legislation allowing defendants to pay less than the full amount of the bond to be released from jail as their cases proceed in court. HB 42, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, passed 66-32. It allows judges to issue a percentage bond to defendants to be released from pretrial confinement instead of paying a bail bond company to secure their release. 'A few years ago, we passed an amendment to the Alabama Bail Reform Act that removed three words,' England said during the discussion on the floor. 'The three words were, 'a part of,' so it basically requires the total sum of the bail to be paid in order to secure release. This bill restores those three words so it would allow judges to take partial, percentage bonds.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX If an individual fails to appear in court, the money paid by the defendant will be returned to the court to pay for expenses or restitution. England filed similar legislation in 2024 that was approved by the House of Representatives but did not come out of the Senate.. The bill leaves just about all the language of the Alabama Bail Reform Act in place but adds the three words that England referred to during the floor discussion back into state statute. HB 42 has been one of the few criminal justice reform bills that the House chamber has approved for the session. The House Judiciary Committee hosted a public hearing on the legislation in late February with one person speaking on the legislation. Victor Howard, who owns a bail bond company based in Madison County, said the bill fails to hold people accountable and will not entice people to appear for their scheduled defendants are not able to pay the full amount of their bond, they'll pay a bail bond company a percentage of the total bail amount, typically 10%, and the company assumes responsibility for the person to appear at their scheduled hearings. In March, the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve the bill and allow it to move forward to the full House chamber. Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Matthews, who voted for the bill, called it 'a small step, but it is a step in the right direction.'. 'We have done so much for title bonds, payday loans, but there is no reform and no oversight on this,' he said during floor discussion. 'Let's work together to take it to the next step.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
