House Bill 219

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-1003, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR OFFENDERS WHO MAY BE PLACED IN THE INTENSIVE SUPERVISION PROGRAM BY COURTS OR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 47-5-1003, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-5-1003. (1) An intensive supervision program may be used as an alternative to incarceration for offenders who are low risk and have committed nonviolent crimes, as defined in Section 47-7-3(1)(g), and have been selected by the department or court. * * *

(2) The court or the department may place the defendant on intensive supervision, except when a death sentence or life imprisonment is the maximum penalty which may be imposed or if the defendant has been convicted of a felony committed after having been confined for the conviction of a felony on a previous occasion in any court or courts of the United States and of any state or territories thereof or has been convicted of a felony involving the use of a deadly weapon.

(3) To protect and to ensure the safety of the state's citizens, any offender who violates an order or condition of the intensive supervision program may be arrested by the correctional field officer and placed in the actual custody of the Department of Corrections. Such offender is under the full and complete jurisdiction of the department and subject to removal from the program by the classification hearing officer.

(4) When any circuit or county court places an offender in an intensive supervision program, the court shall give notice to the Mississippi Department of Corrections within fifteen (15) days of the court's decision to place the offender in an intensive supervision program. 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 in an intensive supervision program.

The courts may not require an offender to participate in the intensive supervision program during a term of probation or post-release supervision.

(5) The Department of Corrections shall submit a report to the chairperson of the House Corrections Committee and the chairperson of the Senate Corrections Committee on the effectiveness of the intensive supervision program before January 1, 2010.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2010.