Chapter 15
AN ACT
SB 189
Relating to corrections education; creating new provisions; amending
ORS 421.081, 421.084, 421.121 and 423.085; and declaring an emergency.
Be It Enacted by the People of
the State of
SECTION 1. The
Corrections Education Advisory Committee is abolished.
SECTION 2.
ORS 421.081 is amended to read:
421.081. [(1) A Corrections Education Advisory
Committee is established. Membership of the committee consists of:]
[(a) The Administrator of Correctional Education, who shall be the
chairperson of the committee;]
[(b) The Superintendent of Public Instruction, or a person designated by
the superintendent;]
[(c) The Commissioner for Community College Services, or a person
designated by the commissioner;]
[(d) The chairperson of the State Board of Parole and Post-Prison
Supervision, or a person designated by the chairperson; and]
[(e) A public member, to be appointed by the Governor, with professional
experience in correctional education.]
[(2)] (1) The Administrator of Correctional Education shall
plan, design and implement a correctional [educational
delivery] education system that can be operated within the existing
correctional institutions for inmates of those institutions. [The Corrections Education Advisory Committee
shall advise the administrator in the planning, design and implementation.]
[(3)(a)] (2)(a) The primary objective of the correctional
education system is the [functional
literacy] adult basic skills development program [created] described in ORS
421.084.
(b) The secondary
objective is to provide professional and technical education that will [insure] ensure that inmates who
complete the professional and technical program will possess, at a minimum,
entry-level marketable professional and technical skills in an occupational
field for which there is a demand in this state.
[(4) The Administrator of Correctional Education shall provide staff for
the committee and shall have administrative control and accountability for the
work of the committee.]
SECTION 3.
ORS 421.084 is amended to read:
421.084. (1) [The Corrections Education Advisory Committee
shall assist in the development, and] The Administrator of Correctional
Education shall [design a functional
literacy] administer an adult basic skills development program for
all individuals in the custody of the Department of Corrections. The program
shall:
(a) Test individuals for
[functional literacy level] basic
reading and mathematics skills or, for individuals with limited English
language proficiency, English speaking skills. Testing for basic
intelligence, learning disabilities, developmental disabilities and adaptive
behavior skills shall be administered as needed except that the administrator
may accept equivalent test results from other sources;
(b) Except as provided
in subsection (2) of this section, be mandatory for all individuals testing
below [a functional literacy level which
is defined as a score of 230 on the Oregon Basic Adult Skills Inventory System
functional literacy test or] a 8.0 grade equivalency on [other standardized tests] a
standardized reading test approved by the National Reporting System for Adult
Education of the United States Department of Education and by the Adult Basic
Skills Program of the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce
Development;
[(c) Consist of a minimum of 90 days of instruction in functional
literacy consisting of one and one-half hours of instruction per day for five
days per week, provide progress testing and certification and provide for
voluntary attendance beyond the 90-day minimum program;]
(c) Provide progress
testing and certification;
(d) Provide strong
incentives for entering [and successfully
completing the literacy] the program and for [continuing in the program beyond the 90-day minimum period]
achieving the minimum reading level and, for those individuals with
demonstrated ability, provide incentives for making progress toward earning a
General Educational Development (GED) certificate; and
(e) Maintain records of
an individual’s achievement in the program and make those records available to
the State Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision.
(2) Testing for [functional literacy level] basic
skills and participation in the [functional
literacy] adult basic skills development program are not required
for inmates:
(a) Sentenced to or
otherwise confined by the department for less than one year;
(b) Sentenced to life
imprisonment without parole;
(c) Sentenced to death;
[or]
(d) Who are
developmentally disabled[.]; or
(e) Who are specifically
exempted by the Department of Corrections for security or health reasons.
[(3) For the purposes of this section, “functional literacy” means those
educational skills necessary to function independently in society, including
but not limited to, reading, writing, comprehension and arithmetic computation.]
SECTION 4.
ORS 423.085 is amended to read:
423.085. (1) The
Director of the Department of Corrections shall appoint an unclassified
employee to the position of Administrator of Correctional Education.
(2) The Administrator of
Correctional Education shall be employed full-time with authority over, and
responsibility for, statewide corrections education programs. The administrator
shall:
[(a) Chair the Corrections Education Advisory Committee created in ORS
421.081;]
[(b)] (a) Plan, design and implement the correctional
education [programs] system
required in ORS 421.081; and
[(c)] (b) Recommend to the Director of the Department of
Corrections rules as necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the office
of Administrator of Correctional Education.
(3)(a) The Department of
Corrections, through the Administrator of Correctional Education, may negotiate
contracts with organizations and agencies to implement the provisions of ORS 421.081[,] and 421.084 and this section.
The Department of Corrections, in discharging its duties under this section,
shall honor provisions of existing collective bargaining agreements with
current employees of the department that provide for contracting out.
(b) All moneys
appropriated to the Department of Corrections for general, professional and
technical education instruction shall be expended only for those purposes.
SECTION 5.
ORS 421.121 is amended to read:
421.121. (1) Except as
provided in ORS 137.635, each inmate sentenced to the custody of the Department
of Corrections for felonies committed on or after November 1, 1989, [shall be] is eligible for a
reduction in the term of incarceration for appropriate institutional behavior,
as defined by rule of the Department of Corrections, and for participation in
the [functional literacy] adult
basic skills development program described in ORS 421.084.
(2) The maximum amount
of time credits earned for appropriate institutional behavior or for participation
in the [functional literacy] adult
basic skills development program described in ORS 421.084 [shall] may not exceed 20 percent
of the total term of incarceration in a Department of Corrections institution.
(3) The time credits [shall] may not be used to shorten
the term of actual prison confinement to less than six months.
(4) The department shall
adopt rules pursuant to the rulemaking provisions of ORS chapter 183 to
establish a process for granting, retracting and restoring the time credits
earned by the offender as allowed in subsections (1) to (3) of this section.
SECTION 6. This
2007 Act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace,
health and safety, an emergency is declared to exist, and this 2007 Act takes
effect on its passage.
Approved by the Governor March 29, 2007
Filed in the office of Secretary of State March 29, 2007
Effective date March 29, 2007
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