PRINTER'S NO. 2816
No. 2215 Session of 1980
INTRODUCED BY DeWEESE, WACHOB AND KUKOVICH, JANUARY 31, 1980
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, JANUARY 31, 1980
AN ACT 1 Amending the act of August 6, 1941 (P.L.861, No.323), entitled, 2 as amended, "An act to create a uniform and exclusive system 3 for the administration of parole in this Commonwealth; 4 providing state probation services; establishing the 5 "Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole"; conferring and 6 defining its jurisdiction, duties, powers and functions; 7 including the supervision of persons placed upon probation 8 and parole in certain designated cases; providing for the 9 method of appointment of its members; regulating the 10 appointment, removal and discharge of its officers, clerks 11 and employes; dividing the Commonwealth into administrative 12 districts for purposes of probation and parole; fixing the 13 salaries of members of the board and of certain other 14 officers and employes thereof; making violations of certain 15 provisions of this act misdemeanors; providing penalties 16 therefor; and for other cognate purposes, and making an 17 appropriation," further providing for the time within which 18 the board must act on applications. 19 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 20 hereby enacts as follows: 21 Section 1. Section 22, act of August 6, 1941 (P.L.861, 22 No.323), referred to as the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and 23 Parole Law, amended May 27, 1943 (P.L.767, No.324), is amended 24 to read: 25 Section 22. The board shall have the power, subject to the
1 provisions and limitations set forth in section twenty-one, to
2 grant paroles of its own motion whenever in its judgment the
3 interests of justice require the granting of the same. In
4 addition thereto, the board shall have the power, and it shall
5 be its duty, to consider applications for parole by a prisoner
6 or by his attorney, relatives or friends or by any person
7 properly interested in the matter. Hearings of applications
8 shall be held by the board whenever in its judgment hearings are
9 necessary. Reasonable rules and regulations shall be adopted by
10 the board for the presentation and hearing of applications for
11 parole: Provided, however, That whenever any prisoner is paroled
12 by the board, whether of its own motion or after hearing of an
13 application therefor, or whenever an application for parole is
14 refused by the board, a brief statement of the reasons for the
15 board's action shall be filed of record in the offices of the
16 board and shall be at all reasonable times open to public
17 inspection; in no case shall a parole be granted, or an
18 application for parole be dismissed, unless a district
19 supervisor shall have seen and heard him in person in regard
20 thereto within six months prior to the granting or dismissal
21 thereof. Application shall be disposed of by the board within
22 [six] two months of the filing thereof. Except in cases where
23 the Pardon Board has reduced a minimum term by commutation, the
24 board shall initially act on the application, if possible,
25 before the expiration of the minimum term so fixed, and in no
26 case more than thirty days thereafter.
27 In granting and revoking paroles, and in discharging from
28 parole, the members of the board acting thereon shall not be
29 required to personally hear or see all the witnesses and
30 evidence submitted to them for their action, but they may act on
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1 report submitted to them by their agents and employes, together 2 with any pertinent and adequate information furnished to them by 3 fellow members of the board or by others. 4 At least ten days before paroling a prisoner on its own 5 motion the board shall give written notice of such contemplated 6 parole to the district attorney of the county wherein the 7 prisoner shall have been sentenced, and, in cases of hearings on 8 applications for parole as herein provided for, at least ten 9 days written notice of the time and place fixed for such hearing 10 shall be given either by the board or by the applicant, as the 11 board shall direct, to the court and district attorney of the 12 county wherein the applicant shall have been sentenced. 13 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days and shall 14 be applicable to all applications filed thereafter. L14L10CVV/19800H2215B2816 - 3 -