Parole Act 2025

Parole Act 2025

Passed by the Senate and signed by the President on 26 July 2025.

Whereas

Certain punitive sentences are too long;

Believing

That offenders should be allowed to show their behavioral reform, and be allowed back into SimDemocracy;

Hoping

That this Act will allow persons who genuinely wish to participate to rejoin;

Recognizing

The contributions of multiple Senators in the discussion of parole;

THE SENATE OF SIMDEMOCRACY PROCLAIMS

Article 1: Title and Definitions

§1. This is the Parole Act of 2025.

§2. In this Act –

§2.1. “Applicant” means the person seeking parole;

§2.2. “Petitioner” means the Member of the Bar Association who is handling the parole proceedings for the Applicant;

Article 2: General Provisions for obtaining parole

§1. Parole shall only be provided to persons who have already served half or more of their sentence, provided that the sentence is longer than one (1) month.

§2. For the purposes of calculation within this Act, a Permanent Ban is to be calculated as a 14 year ban.

Article 3: Process of obtaining Parole

§1. To obtain Parole, the applicant must contact a Member of the Bar Association, who may choose to take up and conduct the Parole proceedings on behalf of the applicant.

§2. An application for Parole may be filed in the manner of filing cases as stated in the Courtroom Procedures Act 2025, but must contain the following information:

(a) When the original case(s) took place;

(b) The length of the sentence(s); and,

(c) Such information and evidence, including server links, personal statement(s) and screenshots, as would allow the Judge to determine if the applicant has sufficiently reformed since the original case.

§2.1. A Judge shall be assigned to the petition on a rotating schedule.

§3. A hearing may be held for the Parole petition, or the petition may be summarily dismissed by the Judge, if the Judge determines that there is insufficient evidence of reform, or if the petition is filed incorrectly or in a frivolous or vexatious manner. The Judge may make reference to other petitions filed by the Applicant to make this determination.

§4. The hearing shall proceed as follows –

§4.1. 24 hours before the hearing, the Judge must inform the general public, in a location provided for announcements, about the existence and the schedule of the hearing. Any member of the public may then make a request to speak during the hearing to the Judge, and shall provide information about why their testimony would be relevant to the hearing.

§4.2. When the hearing starts, the Judge shall allow the petitioner to present the arguments for Parole on behalf of the Applicant, and may admit such evidence and call such witnesses as may be necessary to support the argument. The rules in relation to evidence under the Courtroom Procedures Act 2025 or Evidence Act 2025 shall not apply, but the Judge may make such orders and investigate such matters as may be necessary to ascertain any point the Judge believes is reasonably necessary to address.

§4.2.1. No person may be compelled to speak at a Parole hearing.

§4.3. The Judge shall then allow members of the general public who have made requests to speak, and shall have discretion over who to allow to speak. If the State or the victim of a crime which the Applicant is being punished for wishes to speak, the Judge must allow them to do so.

§4.4. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Judge may make a Parole Decision, which may –

(a) Dismiss the petition;

(b) Remit the sentence or part thereof; or,

(c) Suspend the remainder of the sentence or part thereof, in accordance with the Criminal Code, notwithstanding any provision in the Criminal Code which limits the length of a suspended sentence;

(d) or make a decision with any combination of (b) and (c) which the Judge believes is reasonably necessary and proper, with regard to the principles stated in §5..

§5. When making a determination on Parole, the Judge must have regard to the following considerations –

(a) Whether the Applicant has sufficiently reformed;

(b) Whether the Applicant is likely to reoffend;

(c) The mitigating and aggravating factors raised in the original trial, if it is possible to locate the transcript of the trial;

(d) The nature and severity of the offence;

(e) The circumstances in which the offence was committed;

(f) Any previously filed Parole application by the Applicant, including any previous instances of parole.

Article 4: Inability to seek Parole

§1. An Applicant shall not be allowed to seek Parole if they are serving a sentence on a crime in the First Schedule of the Criminal Code.

Article 5: Judicial Notice

§1. A court shall take judicial notice of any successful instances of parole by a defendant in a criminal trial.