The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Statute of Open Prisons (外役監條例) that raise the threshold for an inmate’s eligibility to be transferred to a minimum-security prison.
Under the amendments, an inmate must have served at least one-third of their sentence to be eligible, or one half of their sentence for those serving terms for repeat offenses.
It must also be within one year before they become eligible for parole.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The inmate must have demonstrated good behavior while in prison, and must be deemed to pose no threat to the public.
Those who are in prison for committing felonies that carry a minimum 10-year prison sentence — for example, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, privately detaining others, aggravated fraud or crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children — are not eligible for transfer to a minimum-security facility.
An inmate who has broken a restraining order imposed under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法) is also not eligible, nor is one who is involved in a separate ongoing case and is considered a flight risk.
Those who are serving fixed-term seven-year sentences for crimes stipulated under the Banking Act (銀行法), the Financial Holding Company Act (金融控股公司法), the Credit Cooperatives Act (信用合作社法) or any other law related to the finance sector are also not eligible, with the exception of those who have no criminal proceeds or whose criminal proceeds have been confiscated under the law.
Those who are serving sentences for embezzlement or appropriation of public funds must return the proceeds of the crime before becoming eligible for transfer.
The Ministry of Justice previously proposed an amendment to the law following the alleged killing of two police officers by Lin Hsin-wu (林信吾), an inmate who had been serving in a minimum-security prison when he escaped.
That proposal was shelved as legislators across party lines failed to reach a consensus on its content.
Discussions on the law’s amendment were recently revived after Yi Pao-hung (易寶宏) — who is serving time for his involvement in a 2014 case in which police officers were killed in a nightclub shooting — was transferred to a minimum-security prison, resulting in a backlash from the public.
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