MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Corrections

By: Senator(s) Huggins

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-7-4, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT MEDICAL RELEASE FOR STATE INMATES IS CONDITIONAL; TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SHALL SUPERVISE INMATES PLACED ON MEDICAL RELEASE; TO PROVIDE THAT INMATES MEDICAL RELEASE MAY BE REVOKED; TO EXTEND THE REPEALER ON THE MEDICAL RELEASE PROGRAM; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 47-7-4, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-7-4. The commissioner, a member of the board and the medical director of the department, by majority vote, may place an offender who has served not less than one (1) year of his sentence, except an offender convicted of a sex crime, on conditional medical release. The commissioner shall not place an offender on conditional medical release unless the medical director of the department certifies to the commissioner that (a) the offender is suffering from a significant permanent physical medical condition with no possibility of recovery; (b) that his further incarceration will serve no rehabilitative purposes; and (c) that the state would incur unreasonable expenses as a result of his continued incarceration. Any offender placed on conditional medical release shall be supervised by the Community Services Division of the department for the remainder of his sentence. The commissioner, a member of the board and the medical director of the department, by majority vote and upon the recommendation of the classification committee of the department may revoke an offender's conditional medical release. This section shall stand repealed from and after July 1, 1998.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.