Rep Debbie Villio House Governmental Affairs Feb 21, 2024.
There are three bills sponsored by Kenner Republican Debbie Villio that will gut the 2017 Justice Reinvestment Initiatives and drastically reduce a prisoner’s opportunity for early release. In House Criminal Justice, Villio advocated for House Bill 9 which eliminates parole eligibility for crimes committed after August 1st of this year.
“For those of you who believe parole should be for a person 18 years or older who commits a heinous crime, there’s likely very little I can say that will make a difference,” said Villio.
Former Gretna Representative Joe Marino attended the House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the bill to speak against it. He said the 2017 reforms are beginning to work but the main hurdle is that prisoners in parish jails are not provided rehabilitative services to reduce recidivism. He said eliminating parole and forcing prisoners to serve 85% of their sentence…
“Will absolutely increase our jail population and we will retake our title again as the highest incarcerator in the nation and not have results that you are going to want,” said Marino.
Marino said there’s proven that data showing rehab programs work and that severely limiting one’s opportunity for parole doesn’t….
“Just deterrent and the hammer effect of trying to force people not to commit a crime, to scare them not to, assumes that people understand what sentences are and how they’re implemented. But we already are the toughest on crime, but we’re not the smartest,” said Marino.
The bill passed in committee on a 9-5 vote and heads to the House floor.
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