Sentencing: parole.

Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings to meet with each inmate during the 6th year prior to the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date for the purposes of reviewing and documenting the inmate's activities and conduct pertinent to both parole eligibility and to the granting or withholding of postconviction credit. During this consultation, the board is required to provide the inmate with information about the parole hearing process, legal factors relevant to his or her suitability or unsuitability for parole, and individualized recommendations for the inmate regarding his or her work assignments, rehabilitative programs, and institutional behavior. Existing law requires the board to issue its positive and negative findings and recommendations to the inmate in writing, within 30 days following the consultation. This bill would require the board to establish criteria for the setting of parole release dates. The bill would require an inmate who is found suitable for parole to be paroled, subject to certain minimum term provisions and specified review provisions. Existing law requires that one year prior to the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date a panel of 2 or more commissioners or deputy commissioners acting for the board meet with the inmate and, subject to exception, set a parole release date per specified procedures. The bill would require the panel meeting with the inmate to establish the inmate's base term of incarceration by applying specified factors. The bill provides that at the meeting one year prior to the inmate's minimum eligible parole release date the board will normally set a release date at the inmate's initial parole hearing. Existing law requires the board to separately state reasons for its decision to grant or deny parole. The bill would require the board's stated reasons to demonstrate, on the record, an individualized consideration of all relevant factors. The bill would require that in the case of an inmate who has served beyond his or her base term of incarceration, a decision by the board to deny parole be supported by substantial evidence and with respect to the entire record. The bill would require the board to collect and maintain statistics that show, annually, the number of inmates in state prison who are serving a term in excess of their base term of incarceration, as adjusted by applicable enhancements or credits, and the percentage of all cases decided each year in which the board, in a final decision, by a panel or the board sitting en banc, has declined to find an inmate suitable for parole, despite the fact that the inmate has served a sentence beyond the base term of incarceration, as adjusted by applicable enhancements or credits. The bill would require the board to report the data to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2016, and annually thereafter.