§ 42-26-13.3. Prison inmate population capacity — Enforcement mechanisms.
(a) Whenever the overall population of the adult correctional institutions exceeds ninety-five
percent (95%) of the annual capacity set by the committee for thirty (30) consecutive
days or whenever the prison inmate population of any secure facility within the adult
correctional institutions exceeds one hundred percent (100%) of its capacity established
by court order, consent decree, or otherwise, for five (5) consecutive days, the director
of corrections shall notify the chairperson of the committee in writing and said chairperson
shall schedule an emergency meeting of the committee within five (5) business days
of notification to develop measures to address the overcrowding.
(b) The committee shall without delay encourage, coordinate, and oversee efforts to initiate
one or more of the following measures, as the committee deems appropriate, to address
the overcrowding:
(1) Accelerate the implementation of systemic improvements, including, but not limited
to, existing measures for the processing of bail for pretrial detainees, disposing
of pending cases of sentenced inmates, providing accelerated bail hearings, and expediting
hearings for probation and parole violators.
(2) Implement immediately other systemic improvements on a temporary or permanent basis
which may have a positive impact on expediting the processing of pretrial and/or sentenced
inmates as may be necessary and to reduce incarceration days.
(c) In the event such systemic initiatives fail to reduce overcrowding of the inmate population
at any secure facility or facilities to mandated levels within sixty (60) days of
notification to the committee by the director of corrections of the overcrowding,
the committee shall determine whether the source of the overcrowding is in the pretrial
or sentenced inmate population. If the committee determines that the overcrowding
results from the pretrial inmate population, the committee shall, without delay, encourage,
coordinate, and oversee efforts to initiate one or more of the following plans of
action as may be necessary:
(1) Review cases of all pretrial detainees for possible release or bailment;
(2) Utilize alternative measures wherever possible to release pretrial detainees to community
supervision;
(3) Establish a temporary bail fund to release nonviolent pretrial detainees, with or
without community supervision.
(d) If the committee determines that the overcrowding problem results from the sentenced
inmate population, the committee shall, without delay, encourage, coordinate, and
oversee efforts to initiate one or more of the following plans of action as may be
necessary:
(1) Expand the availability of intermediate punishments;
(2) Accelerate parole hearings for those currently eligible and expedite release of those
granted parole;
(3) Temporarily suspend existing guidelines for parole eligibility and consider all prisoners
statutorily eligible for release or parole;
(4) Utilize statutorily authorized grants of meritorious good time to accelerate the release
of nonviolent sentenced offenders who are within thirty (30) days of expiration of
sentence.
(e) If the measures described in subsection (d) above fail to reduce the inmate population
of any secure facility of the adult correctional institutions to mandated levels within
an additional sixty (60) days (or within one hundred twenty (120) days after written
notification to the committee by the director of corrections of the overcrowding crisis),
the committee shall be authorized to direct the parole board to consider the good
time earned by nonviolent offenders pursuant to the provisions of § 42-56-24 and § 42-56-26 for the purpose of expediting the parole eligibility of the minimum number of nonviolent
sentenced offenders needed to meet mandated population levels. A "nonviolent offender�
is defined as one who is not currently serving a sentence of incarceration resulting
from a conviction for a crime of violence defined by § 42-56-20.2.
(f) If the measures described in subsection (e) above fail to reduce the inmate population
of any secure facility to mandated levels within an additional sixty (60) days (or
within one hundred eighty (180) days after written notification to the committee by
the director of corrections of the overcrowding crisis), the chairperson of the committee
shall notify the governor and recommend the grant of sufficient emergency good time
to nonviolent offenders to expedite eligibility for parole of the minimum number of
sentenced offenders to meet the mandated population caps. The governor shall direct
the director of corrections to grant such emergency good time in ten-day (10) increments
to all nonviolent sentenced offenders. Such ten-day (10) increments of emergency good
time shall be granted to make the minimum number of offenders eligible for and actually
released on parole to meet mandated population caps. Upon notification of the governor
of the grant of emergency good time, the parole board shall consider emergency good
time in determining eligibility for parole. A "nonviolent offender� is defined here,
as above in subsection (e), as one who is not currently serving a sentence of incarceration
resulting from a conviction for a crime of violence as defined by § 42-56-20.2.