A bill for an act
relating to corrections; establishing the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment
Act; providing for earned incentive release and supervision abatement status;
requiring reports; appropriating money; amending Minnesota Statutes 2022, sections
244.03; 244.05, subdivision 1b; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota
Statutes, chapter 244.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 244.03, is amended to read:
The commissioner shall deleted text begin provide appropriate mental health programs and vocational and
educational programs with employment-related goals for inmates. The selection, design
and implementation of programs under this section shall be the sole responsibility of the
commissioner, acting within the limitations imposed by the funds appropriated for such
programsdeleted text end new text begin develop, implement, and provide appropriate substance use disorder treatment
programs; sexual offender treatment programming; medical and mental health services;
spiritual and faith-based programming; and vocational, employment and career, educational,
and other rehabilitative programs for persons committed to the authority of the commissionernew text end .
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While evidence-based programs shall be prioritized, the selection, design, and
implementation of programs under this section shall be the sole responsibility of the
commissioner, acting within the limitations imposed by the funds appropriated for the
programs under this section.
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No action challenging the level of expenditures for programs authorized under this
section, nor any action challenging the selection, design or implementation of these programs,
including employee assignments, may be maintained by an deleted text begin inmatedeleted text end new text begin incarcerated personnew text end in
any court in this state.
The commissioner may impose disciplinary sanctions upon any deleted text begin inmatedeleted text end new text begin incarcerated
personnew text end who refuses to participate in rehabilitative programs.
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(a) The commissioner shall develop a comprehensive need assessment process for each
person who is serving a fixed term of imprisonment in a state correctional facility on or
after January 1, 2024, and has 365 days or more remaining until the person's scheduled
supervised release date.
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(b) Upon completion of the assessment process, the commissioner shall ensure the
development of an individualized program plan, along with identified goals for every person
committed to the authority of the Department of Corrections. The individualized program
plan shall be holistic in nature in that it identifies intended outcomes for addressing the
incarcerated person's needs and risk factors, the individual's identified strengths, and available
and needed community supports, including victim safety considerations as required in
section 244.0552, if applicable.
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(c) When an individual is committed to the custody of the commissioner for a crime
resulting in harm against a person or persons, the commissioner shall provide opportunity
for input during the assessment and program plan process. Victim input may include a
summary of victim concerns relative to release, concerns related to victim safety during the
committed person's term of imprisonment, and requests for imposition of victim safety
protocols as additional conditions of imprisonment or supervised release.
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(d) The commissioner shall consider victim input statements in program planning and
establishing conditions governing confinement or release.
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(e) For an individual with less than 365 days remaining until the individual's supervised
release date, the commissioner, in consultation with the incarcerated individual, shall develop
a transition and release plan.
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(a) For the purposes of this section, "earned incentive release" means release credit that
is earned and subtracted from the term of imprisonment for completion of objectives
established by an incarcerated person's individualized program plan.
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(b) To encourage and support rehabilitation when consistent with public interest and
public safety, the commissioner of corrections, in consultation with the Minnesota County
Attorney's Association, Minnesota Board of Public Defense, Minnesota Association of
Community Corrections Act Counties, Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition,
Violence Free Minnesota, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Minnesota Alliance
on Crime, Minnesota Sheriff's Association, Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association,
Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, and faith-based organizations that reflect
the demographics of the incarcerated population, shall establish policy providing for earned
incentive release credit and forfeiture of the credit as part of the term of imprisonment. The
policy shall:
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(1) provide circumstances upon which an incarcerated person may earn incentive release
credits, including participation in rehabilitative programming as required under section
244.031; and
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(2) address those circumstances where (i) the capacity to provide treatment programming
in the correctional facility is diminished but the services are available to the community,
and (ii) the conditions under which the incarcerated person could be released to the
community-based resource but remain subject to commitment to the commissioner and
considered for earned incentive release credit.
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(c) The commissioner shall also develop a policy establishing a process for assessing
and addressing any systemic and programmatic gender and racial disparities that may be
identified in the award of earned incentive release credits.
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(a) Earned incentive release credits shall be subtracted from the term of imprisonment
but shall not be added the person's supervised release term. The maximum amount of earned
incentive release credit that can be earned and subtracted from the term of imprisonment is
17 percent of the term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the credit reduce the term of
imprisonment to less than one-half of the incarcerated person's executed sentence.
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(b) The earned incentive release program is separate and distinct from other legislatively
authorized release programs, including the challenge incarceration program, work release,
conditional medical release, or Conditional Release of Nonviolent Controlled Substance
Offenders program, which may have unique statutory requirements and obligations.
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Persons serving life sentences, persons given indeterminate sentences for crimes
committed on or before April 30, 1980, or persons subject to good time under section 244.04,
or similar laws are ineligible for earned incentive release credit.
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Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 244.05, subdivision 1b, is amended to read:
(a) Except as provided in subdivisions 4 and 5, every inmate sentenced to prison for
a felony offense committed on or after August 1, 1993, shall serve a supervised release term
upon completion of the inmate's term of imprisonment and any disciplinary confinement
period imposed by the commissioner due to the inmate's violation of any disciplinary rule
adopted by the commissioner or refusal to participate in a rehabilitative program required
under section 244.03. The amount of time the inmate serves on supervised release shall be
equal in length to the amount of time remaining in the inmate's executed sentence after the
inmate has served the term of imprisonment new text begin reduced by any earned incentive release credit
new text end and any disciplinary confinement period imposed by the commissioner.
(b) No inmate who violates a disciplinary rule or refuses to participate in a rehabilitative
program as required under section 244.03 shall be placed on supervised release until the
inmate has served the disciplinary confinement period for that disciplinary sanction or until
the inmate is discharged or released from punitive deleted text begin segregationdeleted text end new text begin restrictive housingnew text end
confinement, whichever is later. The imposition of a disciplinary confinement period shall
be considered to be a disciplinary sanction imposed upon an inmate, and the procedure for
imposing the disciplinary confinement period and the rights of the inmate in the procedure
shall be those in effect for the imposition of other disciplinary sanctions at each state
correctional institution.
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(a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the meanings given them:
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(1) "supervision abatement status" means an end to active correctional supervision of a
supervised individual without effect on the legal expiration date of the executed sentence
less any earned incentive release credit; and
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(2) "earned compliance credit" means a one-month reduction from the period of active
supervision of the supervised release term for every two months that a supervised individual
exhibits compliance with the conditions and goals of the individual's supervision plan.
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(b) The commissioner of corrections shall adopt policy providing for earned compliance
credit and forfeiture of the credit. The commissioner shall adjust the period of an individual's