The shocking double slaying in Covington that took the lives of a beloved retired priest and a church worker last November has spurred 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 Rev. Otis Young and Ruth Prats were found dead, their bodies badly burned, outside a downtown Covington business.
Tyson had been released 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-year-old 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.
But Wright, R-Covington, is proposing changes that reduce good time even more for inmates with bad conduct records.
He 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.
The other crimes named in the bill include battery of police officers, prison personnel and emergency room personnel and medical professionals and also second-degree sexual battery, oral sexual battery and escape.
A second 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.
Wright said he has spoken to representatives of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the Sheriff’s Association but hasn’t yet conferred with the Louisiana Department of Safety and Corrections. He’ll do so before the measure goes before committee, he said.
The legislative session opens April 10.
It’s not clear from Tyson’s conduct records whether he committed any of the listed crimes while in prison, but he does have a lengthy list of conduct infractions, including fighting, theft, damage to property and less clearly defined infractions such as defiance and aggravated disobedience, according to records obtained from the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
Wright is a parishioner at St. Peter Catholic Church, where Young spent a decade as pastor, and knew both victims well, he said. He called them model citizens, both in their 70s, who had spent a lifetime serving so well “and to have to go through this for 48 hours.”
“The thing that touched me personally was just the idea, this guy shouldn’t have been out,” Wright said, referring to Tyson. “We don’t want anyone else to go through that.”
Wright said that he wants some good to come from what happened. “Otherwise, what’s the point of government?”
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