Rehabilitation Hearings or Murder Review Hearings

Senate Bill 288 was drafted at the request of the Oregon Board of Parole and Probation to remove the requirement that the parole board follow the rules for contested case hearings for a certain type of parole hearing called a Rehabilitation Hearing or Murder Review Hearing. At a Rehabilitation Hearing, a prisoner has the burden of proving that he or she is capable of rehabilitation in a reasonable period of time. If a person demonstrates that he or she is capable of rehabilitation, his or her sentence is changed from one of life in prison to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The courts have determined that demonstrating rehabilitation is a heavy burden to prove. The effect of SB 288 as originally drafted would be to strip prisoners of many procedures, such as the ability to subpoena witnesses that are necessary for proving one’s rehabilitation.

PSJ opposed SB 288 and worked to educate legislators about the many problems with the legislation. While the bill did pass, the final version included amendments that not only increased the number of prisoners still eligible to use contested case hearing procedures, but also allowed some of the important due process rights that the original version of the bill removed (such as the ability to subpoena witnesses and the requirement that the parole board provide findings of fact and conclusions of law with its decision in a Rehabilitation Hearing). The State Office of Public Defenders and the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association worked hard to make the final version of the bill much better than the one originally introduced. We appreciate the many communications we had from our incarcerated members who helped us understand what this legislation meant for the rights of prisoners.