2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE FOUR - Judiciary (§§ 1-3 — 2166) › PART V - Correction and Parole (§§ 1101 — 1646) › Chapter 85 - Parole (§§ 1501 — 1516) › § 1503 - Authority, powers and duties of the Board

The Parole Board shall have the following authority, powers and duties:
(a) It may set free on parole any person confined in any of the penal institutions of Puerto Rico who has been or is convicted for crimes committed prior to the effective date of the law which establishes the Fixed Sentence System in Puerto Rico, or who has been or is convicted for crimes under the law which establishes the Fixed Sentence System in Puerto Rico, when he/she has paid the fine provided in Section 49-C of Act No. 115 of July 22, 1974, and served half of the fixed sentence imposed, except when the person has been convicted under said fixed sentence system of murder in the first degree, in which case the Board shall assume jurisdiction when the person has served twenty-five (25) calendar years, or when the person has served ten (10) calendar years if the person convicted for said crime was a minor adjudged as an adult. However, in cases of murder in the first degree committed under the modality provided in subsection (b) of Section 83 of the repealed Act No. 115 of July 22, 1974, the Board may not grant parole.
It may likewise grant parole to any person confined in any of the penal institutions of Puerto Rico who has been convicted pursuant to the classification indicating the seriousness of the crime and the conditions for granting the same established in the Penal Code of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as follows:
(1) If the person has been convicted of a felony in the first degree or habitual recidivism has been determined, he/she may be considered for parole after serving twenty-five (25) calendar years of his/her sentence, or ten (10) calendar years, if it is a minor prosecuted and sentenced as an adult.
(2) If the person has been convicted of a felony in the second degree, he/she may be considered for parole after serving eighty percent (80%) of the term of imprisonment imposed.
(3) If the person has been convicted of a felony in the third degree, he/she may be considered for parole after serving sixty percent (60%) of the term of imprisonment imposed.
(4) If the person has been convicted of a felony in the fourth degree, he/she may be considered for parole after serving fifty percent (50%) of the term of imprisonment imposed.
In any case in which the Board orders that the person confined be set free on parole, it may impose the conditions it may deem advisable and set conditions that may be altered from time to time, as each case may merit. The Board shall impose and set down in writing, as part of the conditions for granting parole, the commitment of the person paroled to not incur criminal conduct and to not associate with persons known to participate in illegal activities while he/she is enjoying the benefits granted by this chapter.
As a condition for granting parole, the person shall consent to being subjected to a regular program for detecting the presence of controlled substances through trustworthy tests that will allow the person to receive orientation, treatment and rehabilitation and shall furthermore have his/her name, address and other data registered in the Register for Persons Convicted of Violent Sexual Crimes and Abuse of Minors created by law in the Criminal Justice Information System, when convicted for any of the crimes therein listed.
Moreover, if during a preliminary hearing a court determines that there is probable cause to believe that a felony has been committed, the parolee, as a condition for his/her parole, shall accept that there is no need for holding an initial summary hearing as provided in § 1505 of this title and to being confined until the Board issues its final decision. The determination of probable cause in the commission of a felony constitutes sufficient cause to have the parolee confined until the Board issues its final decision. Parole shall be decreed for the best interests of society and when the present circumstances allow the Board to believe with reasonable certainty that such a measure will help to rehabilitate the delinquent. In order to determine whether to grant parole or not, the Board shall have before it all the possible information concerning the social, medical, occupational, and criminal history of each inmate, including the attitude of the community towards having the subject freed on parole as well as an evaluation that must be submitted by the Corrections Administration.
(b) In the exercise of its discretion and taking into account the Correctional Administration’s evaluation, it shall have the power to revoke the parole granted to any parolee, who, because of his conduct, shows that he is not yet prepared to fully enjoy the privileges and treatment such parole entails.
The Correctional Administration upon consulting with the Institute of Forensic Sciences shall adopt the needed regulations and shall establish the testing procedures to be followed to detect the presence of controlled substances for all parolees. Such person’s refusal to submit to the testing program or to the rehabilitation treatment designed by the Correctional Administration shall provide grounds for the Board to revoke parole and direct the confinement of the person pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(c) It may order the confinement of any parolee in any medical institution to receive treatment, whenever it has the reasonable certainty that his presence in the community is incompatible with the safety or welfare of his own person or of the community. The time spent by the person in the medical institution shall be credited to his sentence, as if he were enjoying parole in the community. The cases of persons confined in a medical institution by virtue of this power shall be periodically revised by the Board in a period not exceeding six (6) months in order to determine, in common agreement with the authorities of the medical institution where they were confined, the convenience of their return to the community.
(d) The Board, in its initiative or at the request of the Governor, shall advise the latter in the granting of any kind of executive clemency. In the cases in which the Governor grants executive clemency subject to conditions, the latter may delegate on the Correctional Administration the supervision of the persons to whom conditional executive clemency has been granted. These persons shall remain under the legal custody of the Governor, who may, on recommendation, of the Board or on his own initiative, cancel the order granting conditional executive clemency and order that the person in question be recommitted to serve the rest of the unexpired sentence in the institution designated by the Correctional Administration. Nothing provided herein shall impair the Governor’s power to exercise the executive clemency granted him under the Commonwealth Constitution and the laws of Puerto Rico.
(e) The Board is authorized to restore to the persons under parole such rights as in its judgment are necessary to achieve his rehabilitation, excluding the right to vote and fill elective offices. The right to fill public offices shall be subject to the provisions of §§ 556a—556e of Title 3.
(f) It may designate examiners to receive evidence on any case or matter pending determination by the Board itself.
(g) It shall have power to adopt, modify and repeal the regulations necessary to implement this chapter. The regulations, once approved by the Governor and upon compliance with the provisions of §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3 shall have the force of law. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter or of the regulations approved pursuant thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(h) It shall render an annual report on its activities to the Governor, the Legislative Assembly and the Correctional Administration.
(i) It may receive donations from public and/or private institutions so as to generate its own funds to carry out activities to help expedite the rehabilitation of inmates on parole through educational and guidance campaigns for them, their families and other members of the community.
(j) It may coordinate with other government agencies, programs or institutions subsidized with Commonwealth funds and/or by any other financing, that offer employment, training or educational services, to refer to them those clients suitable for receiving said privilege so that they may benefit from the services they provide in an effort to encourage their rehabilitation.
History —July 22, 1974, No. 118, Part 1, p. 540, § 3; June 4, 1980, No. 104, p. 340, § 1; Feb. 26, 1987, No. 2, p. 7, § 1; June 19, 1987, No. 27, p. 86, § 1; June 19, 1987, No. 35, p. 116, § 3; Nov. 17, 1992, No. 92, § 2; June 10, 1993, No. 15, § 1; July 27, 1993, No. 32, § 3; July 27, 1993, No. 33, § 3; July 1, 1997, No. 28, § 13; July 29, 1998, No. 183, § 20; July 6, 2000, No. 114, § 2; Aug. 25, 2000, No. 195, § 10; Oct. 31, 2001, No. 151, § 16; Sept. 9, 2004, No. 266, § 14; Sept. 15, 2004, No. 316, § 1, eff. May 1, 2005.