The double murder in Covington that took the lives of a retired priest and a church worker last November has motivated state Rep. Mark Wright to file two bills in the Legislature that would keep prisoners who commit violent crimes in prison or break serious rules behind bars longer.
Antonio Tyson, who now faces two counts of first-degree murder, had been out of prison less than three months when the badly burned bodies of Rev. Otis Young and Ruth Prats were found outside a downtown Covington business.
Tyson had been released from the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer in August after serving 30 years of a 40-year sentence for a 1991 rape, armed robbery and burglary. But the 49 YO could have gotten out of prison in early 2012 if he had not lost 4,000 days of good time because of disciplinary infractions.
Under state law, inmates can earn credits toward earlier release by good behavior and participating in self-improvement activities. Those credits can also be taken away for misconduct.
Wright has filed HB 151, which would make it mandatory to wipe out accumulated good time days for inmates who commit any violent crime punishable by 10 years in prison or more and 11 other crimes while incarcerated. Under current law, loss of good time is allowed but not mandatory. A second bill by Wright, HB 147, would require prisoners who are asking the state parole board for early release to go two years without a serious disciplinary citation before they can be released, doubling the current requirement of one year.
The legislative session opens April 10.
