House Bill 192

AN ACT TO CREATE NEW SECTION 99-19-84, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE A SPLIT SENTENCE FOR SEX OFFENDERS; TO CREATE NEW SECTION 99-19-205, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO MANDATE ELECTRONIC SUPERVISION FOR CERTAIN SEX OFFENDERS UPON EXPIRATION OF ANY TERM OF INCARCERATION; TO CREATE NEW SECTION 47-5-1017, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE FOR ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF SEX OFFENDERS UPON WHOM A SPLIT SENTENCE IS IMPOSED; TO CREATE NEW SECTION 47-5-1019, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE FOR PUNISHMENT FOR TAMPERING WITH AN ELECTRONIC MONITORING DEVICE; TO AMEND SECTION 47-7-33, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF CERTAIN PAROLEES AND PROBATIONERS; TO AMEND SECTION 47-7-34, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO SPLIT SENTENCING; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. The following shall be codified as Section 99-19-84, Mississippi Code of 1972:

99-19-84. Whenever punishment by imprisonment for a misdemeanor or a felony, except for a capital felony, is prescribed for an offense for which registration as a sex offender is required under Title 45, Chapter 33, the court, in its discretion at the time of sentencing, may impose a split sentence whereby the defendant is to be placed on electronic monitoring following release from incarceration for any term of years or for life.

SECTION 2. The following shall be codified as Section 99-19-205, Mississippi Code of 1972:

99-19-205. Any person who is convicted of a sex offense as defined in Section 45-33-23 on or after the effective date of this act, and who is sentenced to any state or local correctional facility, placed on probation, given a suspended sentence, or other disposition, and the unlawful activity involved a victim who was under sixteen (16) years of age and the offender was twenty-one (21) years of age or older, or the offender is subject to lifetime registration under Section 45-33-47(2), shall be sentenced by the court to mandatory electronic monitoring for life subsequent to the offender's release from incarceration.

SECTION 3. The following shall be codified as Section 47-5-1017, Mississippi Code of 1972:

47-5-1017. The department shall electronically monitor an offender upon whom a split sentence is imposed pursuant to Section 99-19-84 or 99-19-205. The department, in carrying out a court order to electronically monitor an offender, must use a system that actively monitors and identifies the offender's location and timely reports or records the offender's presence near or within a crime scene or in prohibited areas or the offender's departure from specified geographic limitations.

SECTION 4. The following shall be codified as Section 47-5-1019, Mississippi Code of 1972:

47-5-1019. A person who intentionally alters, tampers with, damages or destroys any electronic monitoring equipment, unless the person is the owner of the equipment or an agent of the owner performing ordinary maintenance and repairs, commits a felony punishable by imprisonment not to exceed five (5) years in the custody of the Department of Corrections.

SECTION 5. Section 47-7-33, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-7-33. (1) When it appears to the satisfaction of any circuit court or county court in the State of Mississippi having original jurisdiction over criminal actions, or to the judge thereof, that the ends of justice and the best interest of the public, as well as the defendant, will be served thereby, such court, in termtime or in vacation, shall have the power, after conviction or a plea of guilty, except in a case where a death sentence or life imprisonment is the maximum penalty which may be imposed or where the defendant has been convicted of a felony on a previous occasion in any court or courts of the United States and of any state or territories thereof, to suspend the imposition or execution of sentence, and place the defendant on probation as herein provided, except that the court shall not suspend the execution of a sentence of imprisonment after the defendant shall have begun to serve such sentence. In placing any defendant on probation, the court, or judge, shall direct that such defendant be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

(2) When any circuit or county court places an offender on probation, the court shall give notice to the Mississippi Department of Corrections within fifteen (15) days of the court's decision to place the offender on probation. Notice shall be delivered to the central office of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and to the regional office of the department which will be providing supervision to the offender on probation.

(3) When any circuit court or county court places a person on probation in accordance with the provisions of this section and that person is ordered to make any payments to his family, if any member of his family whom he is ordered to support is receiving public assistance through the State Department of Public Welfare, the court shall order him to make such payments to the county welfare officer of the county rendering public assistance to his family, for the sole use and benefit of said family.

(4) If probation or parole is revoked by the court and the offender is designated as a sex offender for unlawful sexual activity involving a victim under sixteen (16) years of age and the offender is eighteen (18) years of age or older, and if the court imposes a subsequent term of supervision following the revocation of supervision, the court must order electronic monitoring as a condition of any subsequent term of probation or parole.

SECTION 6. Section 47-7-34, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-7-34. (1) When a court imposes a sentence upon a conviction for any felony committed after June 30, 1995, the court, in addition to any other punishment imposed if the other punishment includes a term of incarceration in a state or local correctional facility, may impose a term of post-release supervision. However, the total number of years of incarceration plus the total number of years of post-release supervision shall not exceed the maximum sentence authorized to be imposed by law for the felony committed. The defendant shall be placed under post-release supervision upon release from the term of incarceration. The period of supervision shall be established by the court.

(2) The period of post-release supervision shall be conducted in the same manner as a like period of supervised probation, including a requirement that the defendant shall abide by any terms and conditions as the court may establish. Failure to successfully abide by the terms and conditions shall be grounds to terminate the period of post-release supervision and to recommit the defendant to the correctional facility from which he was previously released. Procedures for termination and recommitment shall be conducted in the same manner as procedures for the revocation of probation and imposition of a suspended sentence.

(3) Post-release supervision programs shall be operated through the probation and parole unit of the Division of Community Corrections of the department. The maximum amount of time that the Mississippi Department of Corrections may supervise an offender on the post-release supervision program is five (5) years.

(4) The provisions of this section shall not affect the ability of a court to impose a split sentence pursuant to Section 99-19-84 or 99-19-205.

SECTION 7. Section 47-7-37, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-7-37. The period of probation shall be fixed by the court, and may at any time be extended or terminated by the court, or judge in vacation. Such period with any extension thereof shall not exceed five (5) years, except that in cases of desertion and/or failure to support minor children, the period of probation may be fixed and/or extended by the court for so long as the duty to support such minor children exists.

At any time during the period of probation the court, or judge in vacation, may issue a warrant for violating any of the conditions of probation or suspension of sentence and cause the probationer to be arrested. Any probation and parole officer may arrest a probationer without a warrant, or may deputize any other officer with power of arrest to do so by giving him a written statement setting forth that the probationer has, in the judgment of the probation and parole officer, violated the conditions of probation. Such written statement delivered with the probationer by the arresting officer to the official in charge of a county jail or other place of detention shall be sufficient warrant for the detention of the probationer.

The probation and parole officer after making an arrest shall present to the detaining authorities a similar statement of the circumstances of violation. The probation and parole officer shall at once notify the court of the arrest and detention of the probationer and shall submit a report in writing showing in what manner the probationer has violated the conditions of probation. Thereupon, or upon an arrest by warrant as herein provided, the court, in termtime or vacation, shall cause the probationer to be brought before it and may continue or revoke all or any part of the probation or the suspension of sentence, and may cause the sentence imposed to be executed or may impose any part of the sentence which might have been imposed at the time of conviction.

If the probationer is arrested in a circuit court district in the State of Mississippi other than that in which he was convicted, the probation and parole officer, upon the written request of the sentencing judge, shall furnish to the circuit court or the county court of the county in which the arrest is made, or to the judge of such court, a report concerning the probationer, and such court or the judge in vacation shall have authority, after a hearing, to continue or revoke all or any part of probation or all or any part of the suspension of sentence, and may in case of revocation proceed to deal with the case as if there had been no probation. In such case, the clerk of the court in which the order of revocation is issued shall forward a transcript of such order to the clerk of the court of original jurisdiction, and the clerk of that court shall proceed as if the order of revocation had been issued by the court of original jurisdiction. Upon the revocation of probation or suspension of sentence of any offender, such offender shall be placed in the legal custody of the State Department of Corrections and shall be subject to the requirements thereof.

Any probationer who removes himself from the State of Mississippi without permission of the court placing him on probation, or the court to which jurisdiction has been transferred, shall be deemed and considered a fugitive from justice and shall be subject to extradition as now provided by law. No part of the time that one is on probation shall be considered as any part of the time that he shall be sentenced to serve.

The arresting officer, except when a probation and parole officer, shall be allowed the same fees as now provided by law for arrest on warrant, and such fees shall be taxed against the probationer and paid as now provided by law.

The arrest, revocation and recommitment procedures of this section also apply to persons who are serving a period of post-release supervision imposed by the court.

The provisions of this section shall not affect the ability of a court to impose a split sentence pursuant to Sections 99-19-84 or 99-19-205.

SECTION 8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2006.