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Senate Judiciary advances SB 190 to improve special-needs parole medical determinations and study placement gaps
Summary
The Senate Judiciary Committee adopted amendments to SB 190 to clarify medical eligibility criteria for special-needs parole, authorize a study of placement barriers, and allow limited jail custody extensions to connect people to community services; the committee sent the bill to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation, 5-2.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 190, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation after adopting two committee amendments and extensive witness testimony on medical standards and placement barriers for people eligible for special-needs parole.
Sponsors and witnesses described SB 190 as a process-improvement measure aimed at two problems: (1) people released from jails in the middle of the night without connection to services, and (2) a special-needs parole (SNP) process that, since a 2021 overhaul, has produced far fewer releases than projected. The bill allows jails discretion to hold people slightly longer to connect them to service providers and revises the medical-determination language so treating clinicians can apply standards they recognize. It also directs a study of placement barriers for people who are medically eligible but cannot be placed.
Sponsor Senator Ball told the committee the bill is focused on "process improvement and…
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