Implementing the joint recommendations of the Massachusetts criminal justice review

What it means

The House version of a bill on prison sentences, parole, pretrial programs and probation. It lets people serving mandatory minimum drug sentences earn good conduct deductions, parole eligibility and work release before finishing the minimum, except for 'ineligible offenders' such as those convicted of trafficking, certain opioid offenses or offenses involving violence or weapons. It rewrites the prison program credit system (up to 15 days a month in state prison and 10 in a house of correction, plus completion credits, capped at 35 percent of the sentence) and requires the parole board to parole state prisoners who reach a 'release to supervision date' with at least 30 days of completion credits and an approved parole plan. It also lets courts order pretrial services programs instead of bail or as a release condition, and lets people on parole or probation earn credits that shorten supervision; takes effect nine months after passage.

Source: official text and history of H.4012 on malegislature.gov. This describes the bill text posted there; amendments may have changed the version that was voted on.