Louisiana law that cuts parole affects future inmates, not current ones | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: New Louisiana law is 'taking away' parole, time credits from inmates

A March 3 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims Louisiana has abolished two ways prisoners could earn early release.

“Louisiana inmates are no longer eligible for good time!!! / No parole !!” the text in the post begins. “New bill passed !! Taking away parole and good time!!!!”

It was shared more than 1,500 times in four days.

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Our rating: False

There are new laws related to parole and good time in Louisiana, but they don't affect current inmates. The measures apply only to people convicted of crimes occurring on or after Aug. 1. While the laws make it significantly more difficult for future inmates to earn those incentives, they do not remove them entirely.

Law applies to future inmates, not current ones

Louisiana has one of the nation’s highest homicide rates, and because of that, Gov. Jeff Landry called lawmakers into a 10-day special session in February that focused on violent crime. The Republican-dominated legislature passed an array of bills, and Landry signed 11 of them into law March 5.

The claim in the post refers to two of those – one that makes drastic cuts to parole, and another that significantly reduces access to good behavior credits. But it gets some key elements wrong, according to legal experts and the lawmaker who sponsored the measures.

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The post's declaration that the state is “taking away” parole and behavior credits from inmates who "are no longer eligible" strongly suggests the new law revokes the incentives for those presently incarcerated.

But neither measure has any effect on current inmates, Stas Moroz, a clinical assistant professor of law at Tulane University, told USA TODAY in an email. Both laws state they apply only to people convicted of crimes that take place on or after Aug. 1.

They have “zero impact on the current inmate population, as well as zero impact on anyone currently in the system,” Rep. Debbie Villio, a Republican who sponsored both bills, told USA TODAY in an email.

While neither law completely eliminates either of the incentives, they become dramatically less accessible under both.

  • House Bill 10 requires prisoners to serve 85% of their sentences before they can be released for good behavior. The previous minimum was 35%, Nola.com reported.

Any attempt by a state to change the terms of parole or any other incentives could violate the Constitution’s ex post facto clause, which prohibits states from retroactively imposing criminal liability or increasing criminal punishment, Andrea Armstrong, an incarceration law expert and law professor at Loyola University of New Orleans, told USA TODAY.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has held that retroactive changes in parole eligibility, for example, may violate this clause, but not always,” Armstrong said in an email.

For example, the high court ruled in 1981 that a Florida statute reducing early release credits for good behavior was unconstitutional as it was applied to an inmate whose offense took place before the adoption of a law that made those credits tougher to earn, according to Constitution Annotated, a congressional website.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Louisiana parole law affects future, not current, inmates | Fact check