Bill on higher fees for parolees heads to Senate floor
BATON ROUGE — Legislation that would boost the maximum monthly fee a parolee pays to the state Department of Corrections made its way out of a Senate committee Tuesday.
The Senate Judiciary B Committee voted 3-1 in support of House Bill 302, by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria. Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, opposed the measure, while Sen. Ronnie Johns, R-Sulphur, supported it. The legislation will be referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
Harris’ bill would increase the maximum monthly fee for parolees from $63 to $100. It would only apply to parolees who are employed. The last fee increase was $10 in the 2012 fiscal year.
Harris said the bill was intended to retain and recruit parole officers, but added that he wanted them to get a pay raise. The committee later approved an amendment by Sen. Gregory Tarver, D-Shreveport, to guarantee money from the fee increase would raise pay for parole officers.
Francisco Dean with the Division of Probation and Parole said starting pay for parole officers is just over $30,000 per year. He said there are more than 40 job openings right now statewide. Dean said most parole officers end up moving to other departments, like state police, within a year.
“We need this (raise),” Dean said. “We can’t keep agents.”
Some lawmakers voiced concerns about whether the funding mechanism could afford pay raises. Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, said parolees often have difficulty finding jobs.
Dean said 39 percent of the 72,000 offenders being supervised are parolees. If half are working and paying fees, he said, the fee increase would generate roughly $5 million annually. But the bill’s fiscal note said it would raise just over $926,000 annually, based on the parolees who already pay the $63 monthly fee.
Peterson said she agrees parole officers are underpaid, but that they aren’t the only state employees who need a pay raise. She said targeting certain state employees for pay raises will pit them against one another.
“It’s easy to take care of a little group in a small box,” she said.
Peterson also spoke of the need for House lawmakers to pass fiscal reform. She called Harris’ bill a “quick fix” that doesn’t address long-term solutions, like finding a recurring source of revenue.
Peterson said it’s unfair to put the pay raises on the backs of parolees who are struggling financially. Others also testified that increasing the fee would put more strain on parolees who are already struggling financially.