(a) When Parole Permitted. An offender sentenced to a term of imprisonment may be released conditionally on parole upon completion of two-thirds (2/3) of his fixed sentence or thereafter in accordance with the provisions of this Article, provided that in the case of an offender sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the commission of a violent crime, such offender may be released conditionally on parole upon completion of eighty-five percent (85%) of his fixed sentence or thereafter in accordance with the provisions of this Article. (1) Nothing in this Section shall be construed as limiting or mitigating in any fashion the discretionary or mandatory imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for any offense, as may be detailed elsewhere in this Title or the laws of Guam. (2) For the purposes of this Section, a “violent crime” is defined as one (1) or more of the following: (A) aggravated murder, as defined in 9 GCA § 16.30; (B) murder, as defined in 9 GCA § 16.40; (C) manslaughter, as defined in 9 GCA § 16.50, and when such manslaughter is not involuntary; (D) aggravated assault, as defined in 9 GCA § 19.20, and when it is a felony in the first degree; (E) kidnapping, as defined in 9 GCA § 22.20, and when it is a felony in the first degree; (F) first degree criminal sexual conduct, as defined in 9 GCA § 25.15; (G) second degree criminal sexual conduct, as defined in 9 GCA § 25.20; (H) aggravated arson, as defined in 9 GCA § 34.20; (I) first degree robbery, as defined in 9 GCA § 40.10; or (J) second degree robbery, as defined in 9 GCA § 40.20. (b) A sentence to a fixed term of imprisonment includes, as a separate portion of the sentence, a term of parole or of recommitment for violation of the conditions of parole which governs the duration of parole
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or recommitment after the offender’s first conditional release on parole. The term is three (3) years unless the conviction was for a misdemeanor in which case it is one (1) year. (c) If an offender is recommitted upon revocation of his parole, the term of further imprisonment upon such recommitment and of any subsequent reparole or recommitment under the same sentence shall be fixed by the Guam Parole Board but shall not exceed in length the longer of the unserved balance of: (1) the parole term provided by Subsection (b); or (2) the remainder of the original sentence determined from the date of conviction. (d) When the parole term has expired or he has been sooner discharged from parole, an offender shall be deemed to have served his sentence and shall be released unconditionally. (e) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, all sentenced and incarcerated first offenders who have been convicted and sentenced to a prison term for non-violent or non drug offense(s) shall be eligible for parole after serving fifty percent of their prison term. All procedures for applying for parole, reviewing and granting parole under this section, except as stated herein, shall be governed by the provisions of Article 5 of this Chapter. (f) Upon entry into the Guam Adult Reentry Court Program, the Guam Adult Reentry Court may order rehabilitation and treatment services to be provided, determine appropriate incentives, order appropriate sanctions, and hear and determine appropriate responses to alleged violations, unless and until the Court terminates the parolee’s enrollment in the Program. SOURCE: Compare Govt. Code §§ 39100, 39100.1, 39115-39917; M.P.C. § 6.10; Mass. ch. 264, §§ 26, 27; *N.J. § 2C:43-9. Enacted 1977. Subsections (a) and (b) repealed and reenacted by P.L. 14-143:17 (Sept. 29, 1978). Subsection (a) amended by P.L. 24-270:1 (Oct. 2, 1998). Subsection (e) added by P.L. 24-271:2 (Oct. 2, 1998). Subsection (f) added by P.L. 34-081:3 (Feb. 10, 2018). 2018 NOTE: Reference to “Territorial” removed and/or altered to “Guam” pursuant to 1 GCA § 420. 2013 NOTE: Pursuant to the authority granted by 1 GCA § 1606, numbers and/or letters in subsection (a) were altered to adhere to the Compiler’s alpha-numeric scheme. CROSS-REFERENCES: N.J. Cr. Law Rev. Comm.; N.J. Penal Code 319-323 (Final Report, 1971); G.P.C. § 1231(b). COMMENT: This Article proceeds on the view that conditional release on parole, with its accompanying supervision, is a normal and necessary state in the transition from prison life to full freedom in the community; and that it should, therefore, be the invariable incident of a prison sentence, not an exceptional act of grace bestowed upon good risks and withheld from the bad. This concept requires the abandonment of the idea that the parole period is a portion of the original prison sentence not required to be served in prison. It calls for thinking of a period of supervised release - “parole term” - as the invariable incident of any prison sentence. The prison sentence determines the maximum period that may be served in prison prior to conditional release. This further period, which may or may not be within the limits of the original prison sentence, is by operation of law made an incident of any sentence of imprisonment for term. A prison sentence, in short, contains two (2) parts. The first part determines when the offender may and when he must be released on parole. The second part, stated in this Article, determines when the offender may and when he must be discharged from parole. This approach is a substantial variation from the system formerly in effect. Under the Penal Code, the Parole Board’s power to control a convicted person was limited by the maximum term of the sentence imposed upon him. Thus, if a person was released on parole with six (6) months of his total sentence remaining, his total parole term could be only six (6) months. It should be noted that the “term” referred to in this Section does not refer to the method of indefinite sentencing formerly practiced by the State of California. Rather, it refers only to the situation where the judge sets the maximum term of imprisonment, and a minimum term where authorized, but that term is determined by law, not by some “Adult Authority.” Thus, despite the wording, it appears that this sentencing does not differ that radically from the former method found in the Penal Code. Nevertheless, this Article does provide a variance from the Penal Code.
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