Q: My son is in prison on a drug charge and domestic assault and battery by strangulation on me. This is second time.
I know as of November 1st domestic abuse by strangulation will be considered a violent charge in oklahoma. He is a repeat offender of assault on me. Will he now have to serve his 85% of time since he is in prison now and will still be when the law comes in affect?
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A:
Two things. Not all violent crimes are crimes subject to the list of crimes in which inmates must serve 85% of their sentence before being eligible for release. In this situation, the Legislature amended the list of violent crimes to include several domestic abuse crimes; however, those same crimes were not added to the list of 85% crimes.
Additionally, laws passed by the legislature that impact how long a person is going to stay in prison are applied only going forward to those who commit the crime on or after the effective date of the law. There are some statutes that restrict eligibility for programs or even administrative parole based on whether the individual was convicted of a violent crime, and it is possible that the amendment that took effect November 1 to include Domestic A&B by Strangulation as a violent crime may prevent (there would be arguments both ways, but my guess is DOC and the Pardon and Parole Board will say that it does) from qualifying in the future for those programs and impact his eligibility for administrative parole.
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