House Corrections & Institutions reviews Senate amendments to parole and victim-notification bill

The House Corrections & Institutions Committee on May 6 reviewed Senate amendments to a parole-related bill (referred to in the meeting as 08/05/1959), discussing changes to training, board composition, legal support, budgeting and victim notifications.

Sen. Joe Major, the Senate Institutions reporter for the bill, told the committee the Senate package makes five principal changes: it strengthens annual training requirements for parole-board members; replaces two alternate members with two regular members (resulting in seven regular members total) while calling for gubernatorial consultation with the board director and chair on appointments; clarifies the parole-board director's responsibility for training and board support; creates a fiscal‑year 2027 pilot to provide external legal counsel for the board coordinated by the attorney general's office and the Agency of Human Services; and adds budget-development and reporting duties and a requirement to report back to the legislature on whether the parole board should have its own line item in the Department of Corrections budget.

"The bill makes five changes," Sen. Joe Major said, summarizing the amendments and describing the pilot and reporting…