The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard SB 445 on electronic monitoring standards authored by Sen. Walker.The bill:
- requires the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC) to develop electronic monitoring standards and to submit an annual report as to the standards.
- requires JRAC to conduct a workload study of local supervising agencies concerning electronic monitoring and home detention, make certain findings, and submit a report to the legislative council not later than July 1, 2025.
- provides that a contract employee of a supervising agency is required to notify the supervising agency of certain actions with respect to a tracked individual not later than 12 hours after the action occurs.
- requires this notification to be sent within 15 minutes if the tracked individual is serving a sentence for a crime of violence or a crime of domestic or sexual violence.
- specifies that a supervising agency must include in a quarterly report the number of tracked individuals who are on parole supervision and the number of false location alerts, device malfunctions, or both.
- provides that a local supervising agency and the division of parole services shall report directly to the local JRAC each quarter.
- requires the statewide JRAC to transmit an annual electronic report to the legislative council and to the judicial conference of Indiana not later than March 15 of each year.
The bill was amended by consent to provide JRAC with discretion whether to develop electronic monitoring standards and to submit an annual report as to the standards. The amendment was necessary to prevent the bill from being recommitted to Appropriations.
The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police testified in support of the bill. The Indiana Public Defender Council testified in opposition. The amended bill passed 8-0.
Read the bill at https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2023/bills/senate/445