Committee to sponsor ‘second look’ bill that allows for reduction of lengthy prison sentences

(Photo: Michael Lyle/Nevada Current)

State lawmakers are pursuing legislation that would allow reconsideration of lengthy prison sentences for those deemed “successfully rehabilitated.”

“Second look” laws, as they are often referred to, allow for sentencing review boards or courts to re-evaluate a person’s sentence after they’ve served a significant period of time in prison.

At a hearing in late August, the Interim Judiciary Committee voted to sponsor a bill to bring a “second look” law to Nevada. The proposal was one of 15 bill draft requests the committee approved for the 2025 Legislative session.

Daniel Landsman, the vice president of policy for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told lawmakers during a February committee meeting that California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington along with the District of Columbia have passed versions of the second look laws.

Nevada should join the list, he said.

“Evidence supports the idea that Nevada should give judges or another determining body the opportunity to revisit old, lengthy sentences,” Landsman said. “They can determine if the sentence is still in the interest of justice and an appropriate use of Nevada’s finite public safety resources.”

There were 560 people serving life without parole and 1,892 serving life with parole in Nevada as of December 2023, Landsman said.

He added that 1,888 people are serving sentences longer than 15 years while 1,272 people currently incarcerated have already served 15 years in person.

Landsman said not all of those people might be ready for release but “many will be.”

“Decision makers retain discretion to reduce the sentence, grant release or leave the existing sentence in place,” he said in February.

Republican Assemblyman Ken Gray was the lone vote against the proposal advancing to become a bill draft request during the August hearing.

Advocacy groups and criminal reform organizers, who spoke during public comment at the committee meeting, have long been advocating the state to look at ways to reduce the prison population.

Those calls were underscored over the summer when record breaking temperatures made it hard for swamp coolers at High Desert State Prison to remain cool.

Leslie Turner, an organizer with the Mass Liberation Project, previously told Nevada Current that corrections officials need to look at reducing the prison population rather than just focus on repairing outdated systems.

Turner, who spoke during public comment at last week’s hearing, said the group has worked with those incarcerated as they work to bring a “second look” law to Nevada.

“We’ve been working on this over a year doing research with currently incarcerated people to understand who would specifically be impacted by this legislation,” she said. “We’ve been meeting with the DA’s office, we’ve been talking to victims of crime. We are headed to D.C. with a crime survivors network so we can really be able to be holistic in our approach to this bill.”

Each state has adopted their own standards around eligibility requirements for second look laws to go into effect, Landsman said.

Laws have factored in age of the person at the time of the crime, consideration for the victim and their families and the ability to appeal denials in reasonable timeframes.

Landsman pointed to DC’s law as one of the best in the nation. Originally the version was open to people who committed crimes before they were 18 but then was expanded to include up to age 25.

Once a person has served 15 years, they can have their sentences re-examined no matter what the crime, he said.

“As of June 2023, 195 people have been released under this expanded second look law and only seven people or 4% have been rearrested,” Landsman said. “People released under this bill have found employment and success taking full advantage of the second chances with some dedicating their time preventing future violence in their own communities.”

More BDRs

Another proposal approved by the committee would require the Nevada Department of Corrections to discharge certain medical debt owed by those incarcerated after they are released from prison.

The measure would build on other prison reforms passed in the 2023 legislative session, including legislation referred to as the cost of incarceration bill that ended medical copays and “man down” fees, when those incarcerated require emergency medical services.

Republican Assemblywoman Danielle Gallant said she was concerned “about some of the fiscal ramifications” of the proposal but ultimately voted in favor for it to advance to become a bill draft request.

Gray voted against the proposal.

The committee also advanced a bill draft request designed to bolster indigent defense, including removing a statute that prohibits state public defenders from taking private cases.

Democratic state Sen. Melanie Scheible, who is the vice chair for the committee, said rural committees are in crisis and “anything we can do to get people counsel faster we absolutely have to do.”

“There are dozens of cases every single day where people are lacking appointed counsel, especially in rural areas,” Scheible said. “When there are not enough private attorneys who are willing and able to take on those cases, those people just wait for attorneys to be appointed.

The proposals advanced without opposition.

Other proposals the committee is looking to sponsor include:

• Requiring institutions to adopt consistent policy standards for unclothed searches of youth at local detention facilities;
• Amending state law to allow the state, rather than the county, to be billed for forensic medical exams for strangulation in sexual assault or domestic battery cases;
• Eliminating a requirement for the district attorney to give written approval to place a child under “informal supervision.”