The Louisiana State Pardon Board could be abolished if House Bill 85 gets approved by lawmakers and voters by Nov. 6, saving the state $384,000 a year but preventing all possible pardon recommendations of non-violent criminals by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The bill's author Rep. Austin Badon (D-New Orleans) defended his bill in a press conference, stating the state spends a ridiculous amount of money to have a pardon board "to make recommendations to a governor who may not use them."
Badon also told the Times-Picayune his proposals are also concerned with bettering the criminal justice system, by showing victims of crime that no one person, in this case the governor, can set aside punishment meted out by a judge and jury. "An elected official should not be able to do that," he said.
Jindal recently named two former lawmakers, Ricky Hardy (D-Lafayette), and Mert Smiley (R-St. Amant) to the board at salaries of $36,000 a year.
Jindal has said nothing publicly about the bill, though Jindal spokesman Frank Collins told the Times-Picayune that the administration will review the Badon bills as the legislative session approaches.
Louisiana incarcerates more people per capita and spends more on incarceration than any other state in the U.S. Nearly 1 in 55 of every Louisiana citizen is incarcerated, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. This year alone, Louisiana spent as much as $500 million. Louisiana prison spending also consumes 9.5 percent of state general fund dollars, according to to the Justice Policy Institute, which is higher than most states.
The bill does not deny the automatic pardon for first-time law-breakers who finish a jail sentence, nor does it deny the possibility of probation and parole. Those eligible for the first-offender pardons are criminals convicted of nonviolent offenses crimes as well as first-timers convicted of aggravated battery, second-degree battery, aggravated criminal damage to property, purse-snatching, extortion and illegal use of weapons, according to the bill.
There are more than 65,000 people either on parole or probation in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
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