PRINTER'S NO. 1046
No. 932 Session of 1997
INTRODUCED BY VEON, BELARDI, BELFANTI, GEORGE, READSHAW, MELIO,
ROONEY, SATHER, SHANER, COY, B. SMITH, CASORIO, EGOLF, OLASZ,
FARGO, STABACK, BATTISTO, McCALL, WOGAN, HALUSKA, TRELLO,
STEELMAN, LUCYK, TIGUE, BOSCOLA, BENNINGHOFF, DeLUCA, SAYLOR
AND SEYFERT, MARCH 18, 1997
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, MARCH 18, 1997
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of August 6, 1941 (P.L.861, No.323), entitled,
2 as amended, "An act to create a uniform and exclusive system
3 for the administration of parole in this Commonwealth;
4 providing state probation services; establishing the
5 'Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole'; conferring and
6 defining its jurisdiction, duties, powers and functions;
7 including the supervision of persons placed upon probation
8 and parole in certain designated cases; providing for the
9 method of appointment of its members; regulating the
10 appointment, removal and discharge of its officers, clerks
11 and employes; dividing the Commonwealth into administrative
12 districts for purposes of probation and parole; fixing the
13 salaries of members of the board and of certain other
14 officers and employes thereof; making violations of certain
15 provisions of this act misdemeanors; providing penalties
16 therefor; and for other cognate purposes, and making an
17 appropriation," further providing for applications for
18 parole.
19 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
20 hereby enacts as follows:
21 Section 1. Section 22 of the act of August 6, 1941 (P.L.861,
22 No.323), referred to as the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and
23 Parole Law, amended December 18, 1996 (P.L. , No.164), is
24 amended to read:
1 Section 22. The board shall have the power, subject to the
2 provisions and limitations set forth in section twenty-one, to
3 grant paroles of its own motion whenever in its judgment the
4 interests of justice require the granting of the same. In
5 addition thereto, the board shall have the power, and it shall
6 be its duty, to consider applications for parole by a prisoner
7 or by his attorney. However, the board shall not be required to
8 consider nor dispose of an application by a prisoner or his
9 attorney where a parole decision has been issued by the board on
10 that case:
11 (1) within one year of the date of the current application
12 for parole[.]; or
13 (2) if the time period for parole ineligibility designated
14 by the board in that decision has not elapsed, whichever is
15 longer.
16 Hearings of applications shall be held by the board whenever in
17 its judgment hearings are necessary. Reasonable rules and
18 regulations shall be adopted by the board for the presentation
19 and hearing of applications for parole: Provided, however, That
20 whenever any prisoner is paroled by the board, whether of its
21 own motion or after hearing of an application therefor, or
22 whenever an application for parole is refused by the board, a
23 brief statement of the reasons for the board's action shall be
24 filed of record in the offices of the board and shall be at all
25 reasonable times open to public inspection; in no case shall a
26 parole be granted, or an application for parole be dismissed,
27 unless a board member, hearing examiner or other person so
28 designated by the board shall have seen and heard him in person
29 in regard thereto within six months prior to the granting or
30 dismissal thereof. Application shall be disposed of by the board
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1 within six months of the filing thereof.
2 In granting and revoking paroles, and in discharging from
3 parole, the members of the board acting thereon shall not be
4 required to personally hear or see all the witnesses and
5 evidence submitted to them for their action, but they may act on
6 report submitted to them by their agents and employes, together
7 with any pertinent and adequate information furnished to them by
8 fellow members of the board or by others.
9 At least ten days before paroling a prisoner on its own
10 motion the board shall give written notice of such contemplated
11 parole to the district attorney of the county wherein the
12 prisoner shall have been sentenced, and, in cases of hearings on
13 applications for parole as herein provided for, at least ten
14 days written notice of the time and place fixed for such hearing
15 shall be given either by the board or by the applicant, as the
16 board shall direct, to the court and district attorney of the
17 county wherein the applicant shall have been sentenced.
18 Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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