Juneau, Alaska — The Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on May 16 adopted a committee substitute to Senate Bill 62 that narrows earlier proposals to expand the Board of Parole and instead clarifies membership and administrative arrangements for the existing board.

Louis Flora, staff to the bill sponsor, said SB 62 seeks to broaden parole-board expertise by reserving seats for persons with drug and alcohol counseling experience, an Alaska Native tribal member, a physician/psychologist/psychiatrist with mental-health expertise, and a crime victim or a family member of a victim. "Our intent overall is to create a board of parole with relevant expertise in addition to the correctional expertise already found on the parole board," Flora said.

Committee staff presented a draft committee substitute, version "34-LS0227\h," which removed language to expand the board to seven members and retained a five-member board. The substitute adds a limit of service as presiding officer to one term and amends membership requirements to require that the physician/psychologist/psychiatrist member have experience treating drug or alcohol addiction. The substitute also specifies that the commissioner shall hire the executive director for the board and locates that executive director in the office of the commissioner for administrative purposes.

Committee discussion included questions about how narrowly to define the "victim of a crime" seat and whether an ex officio member should represent victim-services entities. Conrad Jackson, committee staff, described options and said narrowing a victim definition could limit the pool of qualified candidates. The committee adopted the substitute as the working document after initial objection was removed and then set the bill aside for future consideration.

No public testimony on SB 62 was recorded during the hearing.