JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri House committee voted to advance a bill that tightens prison sentencing standards in the state.
House Bill 3155, sponsored by Rep. Bennie Cook, R-Houston, sets new minimum terms to be served before someone is eligible for parole. It was presented to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Currently, Missouri’s felony parole system utilizes flexible, earned-time mechanisms to shorten both incarceration and supervision time. Nonviolent offenders in the state can become eligible for parole after serving as little as 15% of their sentence. This program is typically accessible for those convicted of drug offenses and lower Class D and E felonies, excluding those convicted of violent crimes and sexual offenses.
Cook’s legislation designates a new, higher minimum percentage of each sentence that must be completed before the offender is eligible for parole — for example, 70% of a Class A felony is to be served before applying for parole. This percentage varies depending on the class of felony, but is higher across all five felony classes than the 15% time served threshold, where nonviolent offenders can currently become eligible for parole.
HB 3155 previously contained a range of acceptable percentages for each class of felony. However, the final, amended version of the bill passed by the committee has simplified those ranges to flat rates, Rep. John Black, R-Marshfield, said.
The bill would also remove the court’s ability to retroactively reduce prison terms, probation and conditional release for nonrepeat offenders.
Cook told the committee that this standardization would improve clarity in criminal courts while ensuring that high-class felons face time.
“I think longer sentences can help certain offenders,” Cook said. “Those folks who commit these dangerous felonies need to be serving longer sentences ... and they need to be rehabilitated the best we can.”
Colleagues across the aisle did not disagree with the notion that serious crimes deserve strong penalties. Instead, they argued that the bill would result in more time served for Class D and E convictions.
“I don’t think our concern is those higher crimes,” Rep. Anthony Ealy, D-Grandview, said. “It’s those lower offenses that give us concern.”
Members of the public also testified against the bill, citing experience in Missouri prisons as proof that depriving prisoners of a way out inhibits rehabilitation efforts.
“I’ve watched what happens when people are told at the very beginning of their sentence that no matter how much they change, grow, comply or take responsibility, nothing they do will ever matter,” said Sheena Rogers, executive director of the advocacy nonprofit Show Me Justice for All.
“When hope is taken away, behavior worsens,” she told the committee.
However, some still maintained that there was no evidence that the bill disproportionately impacts nonviolent, lower-level offenders.
Locke Thompson, the prosecuting attorney of Cole County, testified in support of the bill on behalf of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. He rebuffed the notion that the bill would unfairly target low-level felons, arguing that first-time offenders at the Class D and E levels are rarely sentenced to prison terms.
“When you’re someone who has picked up three or four or five felonies at that point, that’s when people start going to prison on those offenses,” Thompson said.
Thompson also clarified that the bill does not address the minimum sentencing requirements for felonies, but rather requires a certain percentage to be served before parole.
Beyond modifying sentencing guidelines, HB 3155 adds several crimes to the list of “dangerous felonies,” including sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, abuse through forced labor and a third offense of failing to register as a sex offender. Crimes categorized as dangerous felonies already see offenders serve longer prison terms with fewer opportunities for early release.
Cook’s bill was combined with an identical bill heard last week by the committee, HB 2637, into a substitute version that was then advanced. Voting proceeded on party lines, with the Republican majority advancing the bill 8-3.
The substitute version of the consolidated bill is now eligible for debate on the House floor.
