Secretary of Public Safety (187)

Authority: Title 2.2, Chapter 2, Article 8, and §2.2-201, Code of Virginia.

A. The Secretary of Public Safety shall present revised state and local juvenile and state and local responsibility adult offender population forecasts to the Governor, the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, and the Chairmen of the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees by October 15, 2010, for each fiscal year through FY 2016 and by October 15, 2011, for each fiscal year through FY2017. The secretary shall ensure that the revised forecast for state-responsible adult offenders shall include an estimate of the number of probation violators included each year within the overall population forecast who may be appropriate for alternative sanctions.

B.  The secretary shall provide a status report on actions taken to improve offender transitional and reentry services, as provided in § 2.2-221.1, Code of Virginia, including improvements to the preparation and provision for employment, treatment, and housing opportunities for those being released from incarceration.  The report shall be provided to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees no later than November 15 of each year.

C. The secretary shall coordinate the development of a statewide system for the use of GPS and other electronic methods of monitoring offenders as an alternative to incarceration. To assist in the development of this system, the Department of Corrections, with the assistance and consultation of the Department of General Services, shall negotiate statewide contracts for GPS and other services that can be used by sheriffs and regional jails, as well as state agencies, and the Department of Criminal Justice Services shall develop the guidelines and criteria for the use of these systems.

D. There is hereby continued the Secretary of Public Safety’s Task Force on Alternatives for Nonviolent Offenders.  The task force shall monitor the progress of its prior recommendations that were adopted and are being implemented. It shall also continue to investigate means of reducing the number of nonviolent offenders incarcerated in prisons and jails without endangering public safety, including additional steps which may be required to encourage the expanded use of electronic monitoring, and may expand its scope to include reentry issues.  The Secretary may expand the membership of the task force as deemed appropriate. The Departments of Planning and Budget, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Services; the Compensation Board; and the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission shall provide such assistance as may be necessary.

E. The Secretary of Public Safety, with support from the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission, the Parole Board, the Department of Corrections, and the Department of Planning and Budget, shall study the feasibility and desirability of parole examiners utilizing a risk assessment instrument as one factor in making recommendations to the Parole Board for the granting of parole.  A report on this study shall be provided to the Governor and the Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees by November 15, 2010.