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Committee adopts amendments to parole bill adding discovery, hearing schedule guarantees and recordings
Summary
The Judiciary Committee adopted amendments March 13 to a parole commission bill that add affirmative discovery, recorded hearings with victim redactions, and date-certain rules for subsequent parole hearings after a denial.
The House Judiciary Committee on March 13 adopted amendments to a parole-related bill to institute several due-process changes for parole hearings and to set maximum intervals for subsequent hearings after a denial.
Sponsor Delegate Embry said the amendments require that defendants eligible for parole receive affirmative discovery of the documents that parole decision-makers will consider; decisions must include written reasons and be delivered in a specified timeframe (the amendment compromise sets 14 days); hearings will be recorded and the recording provided to the petitioner with victim information redacted; and victim impact statements submitted to the court or Parole Commission must be considered at every hearing. The amendments also require the commission to order a stay-away from the victim and the victim’s family unless the victim requests otherwise.
The amendments also set a date-certain rule for subsequent hearings following a denial: for sentences of 10 years or less, a person denied parole must receive a new hearing no later than two years from the denial; for sentences of 10 years or more with no identified victim, the next hearing must occur no later than three years; for sentences over 20 years with a victim, an initial date no later than three years and subsequent denials no later than five years. The sponsor said the measure aims to ensure that eligible people are not left indefinitely without a scheduled next hearing.
Committee members asked about fiscal effects; the sponsor said the amendments reduced but did not eliminate the fiscal note, lowering transcription costs by switching to audio recordings but leaving some unclear staffing and frequency-related costs. A figure in the fiscal note cited roughly 6,700 parole hearings and an estimated $682,000 in state expenditures for fiscal 2026, though the exact change in workload and cost is uncertain pending additional data. The committee adopted the amendments and later voted favorably on the bill as amended.
