COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday from supporters and critics of a proposed legislation to reform South Carolina’s prison system.
Members of a House judicial criminal laws subcommittee heard statements from a former inmate, family members of those incarcerated and victim advocates. The more than 200-paged comprehensive bill calls for automatic release on parole for nonviolent individuals who meet certain conditions and removes mandatory minimum sentences, just two of several proposed solutions to fixing the state corrections.
Republican Rep. Chris Murphy said the current version of the bill has been 10 years in the making and is the product of studies, focus groups and annual meetings with the sentencing reform commission.
“We’re not going to vote on this today,” the North Charleston lawmaker said. “The beginning product will not be the end product. That tends to happen in the General Assembly.”
The legislation has already garnered bipartisan support early in this session, but Murphy said though the bill has some “good parts” fellow lawmakers will still have to iron out issues such as of reducing parole eligibility and mandatory minimums before it is ready to be voted on and debated by the body.
“This bill is one of the few bills that actually offers hope,” Hearts for Inmates co-founder Erica Felder said.
Felder testified before the House subcommittee and said offering incarcerated individuals opportunities for rehabilitation and early release is not only an incentive for inmates but staff as well.
“More prison time is not the answer. Allow them to earn their way back into society,” Felder said.
Lester Young also spoke before the panel about his incarceration experience. Young was sentenced to life in prison, but only spent 22 years and five months in before going on parole. Young said though perpetrators will never be able to change the nature of their crime, they still have potential to change.
“The nature of my crime did not define me then and does not define me today,” he said. “While they’re incarcerated they can do great things.”
While supporters applaud the legislators’ efforts to help with inmate reintegration, detractors said the measure ignores crime victims. Executive Director of South Carolina Crime Victims Association Network Laura Hudson said the criminal justice system belongs to every citizen of the state and victims should not be excluded in the matter.
“This bill will promote more criminal behavior,” Hudson said. “Allowing the General Assembly to impose reduced sentences is perpetrating a lie, hiding the truth and makes the public believe they are safe.”
However, Murphy said the bill does not remove any rights of victims under the South Carolina Constitution.
“I want as strong a bill as possible to come out of the subcommittee so that it would make it easier when we get to full judiciary,” Murphy said. “We’ll just have to see where we go from here.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.