Derrick Thompson was in a wheelchair when he made his first court appearance Friday on 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide.

The 27-year-old son of former state Rep. John Thompson is accused of driving at 95 mph into a car carrying five young women in Minneapolis. All of them were killed instantly. Thompson had a head laceration and leg injury from the crash.

Thompson’s father was not in the courtroom. It also appears no friends or relatives of the victims were there. Although a bond of $1 million was set for Thompson, he won’t be leaving jail because there are also holds on him for violating parole on a California conviction and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for federal drug and gun charges stemming from the crash in Minneapolis.

Thompson’s case is raising renewed concerns about a new plan passed by the Minnesota Legislature to allow many offenders to earn early release from prison. Thompson served less than four years of an eight-year prison sentence in California under new sentencing guidelines there that were approved by voters.

Part of the new public safety law passed by the Legislature last year includes the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act. That provision will allow most inmates, not including those serving life sentences or juveniles, to earn early release if they follow certain guidelines still being developed. It’s expected they could earn reductions of up to 17% of their sentences on top of one-third reductions already allowed under current law.

“I remember this early on at the Legislature talking to law enforcement,” former Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers said in an interview on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.” “There are people we’re mad at, and there are people we’re afraid of, and the difference is who stays in prison the longest. I gotta be honest, [Derrick Thompson] is somebody that we’re afraid of.”

Former DFL state Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge says she agrees there have to be guardrails on this policy.

“I do agree with you we have to have some limits on this. We have 18 months to put these policies in place, and my hope is they do just limit it to non-violent offenders,” Reichgott Junge said.

She says she also understands the intent of the law.

“If you want somebody to come out of prison to be able to live in society, you need to address their substance abuse, their mental health issues,” Reichgott Junge said. “You need to give them education and work skills, and that’s what they’re trying to do with this.”

You can see much more on this issue at 10 a.m. Sunday morning on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”