Legislature(2013 - 2014)CAPITOL 120
03/28/2014 01:00 PM House JUDICIARY
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB235 | |
| HB205 | |
| SB64 | |
| HB282 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 205 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 64 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 282 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | HB 235 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 64-OMNIBUS CRIME/CORRECTIONS/RECIDIVISM BILL
1:59:12 PM
The committee took an at-ease from 1:59:48 to 2:00:59.
2:01:05 PM
CHAIR KELLER said there are several people who would like to
testify.
BILL MICKELSON, President, Mickelson Consulting Group, said that
he helped develop, implement, and then direct the 24/7 Sobriety
Program in South Dakota. He said he is retired after 43 years
in law enforcement and now has a consulting company dedicated to
migrating the 24/7 program across the country and abroad. He
stated that 24/7 is a valuable tool for judges and for the
driver's license division, which would need it for revocation
and reinstatement of licenses. It has been a valuable tool in
South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and all of the other states
where it operates, he added. He said he reviewed SB 64 and did
a cursory review of the amendment, and he applauded the
comprehensive bill.
2:03:52 PM
CHAIR KELLER asked about the amendments.
MR. MICKELSON said his comments are general, but it seems that
the amendment is consistent with other states using 24/7 twice-
a-day testing as an option over interlock devices. "We were
successful in a federal highway bill ... to include the 24/7
Sobriety Program, so we now have parity with the other approved
programs that are administered by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, so, in effect, we do have parity with
ignition interlock devices." He added that it has been quite
effective long term in reducing recidivism, crash rates, and "a
whole host of other benefits." He noted that offering the 24/7
sobriety twice-a-day testing for driver's license reinstatements
is a good and effective move, and it has been quite successful
in all of the states that are using it. These people are
driving sober, because they are tested at least twice a day, he
stated.
2:06:19 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said there is a very recent trial court
order from Montana, and the decision is being appealed to the
Montana Supreme Court. He would like to know what the judge has
ruled.
CHAIR KELLER suggested that Mr. Mickelson could get it.
MR. MICKELSON said it is under appeal and the Montana Governor
and Attorney General are quite confident that the ruling will be
in favor of the sobriety program.
2:07:46 PM
ELIZABETH RIPLEY, Executive Director, Mat-Su Health Foundation,
explained that the foundation shares ownership in Mat-Su
Regional [Medical Center] and invests its profits back into the
Matanuska-Susitna community to improve the health and wellness
of Alaskans living in the area. The Mat-Su Foundation recently
completed a community health-needs assessment by compiling all
valid and reliable health data in the area and then conducting
24 meetings in 2013 with different stake-holder groups.
Attendees at the forums ranked the top five health issues, and
they were all behavioral health related. The issues included
alcohol and substance abuse; child abuse; access to mental
health care; depression and suicide; and domestic violence and
sexual assault. "We don't believe these issues are unique to
Mat-Su, but are, in fact, relevant to communities across
Alaska." She noted that Matanuska-Susitna is home to the Goose
Creek Correctional Center, and the majority of those who are
incarcerated suffer from behavioral health issues and will be
released back into the Matanuska-Susitna community. There is a
meaningful shift across the nation away from incarceration and
toward evidence-based smart justice strategies to protect public
safety and help Alaskans reintegrate back into their
communities.
2:09:15 PM
MS. RIPLEY said that the state is concerned about the costs of
Goose Creek, and people should rethink how criminal justice
dollars are spent and the outcomes they yield. Senate Bill 64
does just that. The Mat-Su Health Foundation particularly
supports the sections that increase the felony threshold for
property-related crimes, institute a 24/7 sobriety program,
institute the PACE program, require the Department of
Corrections (DOC) to conduct a risk/needs assessment on
offenders, establish a fund for treatment programs that reduce
recidivism, and allow credit for time served in residential
substance abuse treatment programs.
2:10:27 PM
BETTY BAIR, Wasilla, Alaska, noted that she sent in testimony
regarding redefining sexual crimes "and all the surrounding
aspects." After listening to others testify, new issues came up
for her, she said. She noted two testifiers who indicated that
the state's tendency is toward punishment of inmates rather than
treatment. One testifier said that 90 per cent of crimes are
from impaired judgment. "Does that really make them a felon?"
she asked. She referred to testimony by Mr. Bair on the
previous day and stated that sexual crimes need to be redefined
to include only real sexual abusers and predators. She then
turned to the topic of education in prisons. "What kind of
education is really going on in our prisons, and how many
inmates are getting a career possibility before they exit?" She
also posed the question of what treatment is being offered and
to how many inmates. She stated that she is not getting
accurate answers from listening to legislative committee
meetings.
2:12:02 PM
MS. BAIR asked how many classes are being offered in the prisons
per number of inmates per institution. She noted that she has a
friend taking a criminal justice class at "the Mat-Su" who was
told that a lot of educational programs were offered, "but even
when she called back in, she was just told 'we're working on
getting more classes lined up.'" So what is really being
offered? she asked. She said she has only heard of three career
possibilities at PCC [Palmer Correctional Center]: electrician,
plumber, and carpenter, and these [programs] are minimally
offered. She added that, "Only two people for each of these
classes, over an 18-month period of time, can have a career
possibility." That is not many opportunities for reentry into
the real world, she opined.
2:13:08 PM
MS. BAIR asked, "What treatment is being offered to our inmates
in real terms, and how many are able to benefit from it?" She
has heard that the best treatment offered to inmates is the TLC
program, which means Transformational, Living Community and is
only offered in the medium security area of PCC and for a
limited number of people. The TLC program results in 75 percent
less recidivism, but there is no counseling or treatment in
minimum security at PCC, she stated. She added that a person is
not even able to pay for a counselor for a family member inside
a prison. "Treatment and counseling are not happening inside."
She opined that the Recidivism Fund is good for those who are
released but the real need is for those who are still
incarcerated. "Help them through their issues all those months
of nothing to do but think," she stated. She said that inmates
need counseling so their lives can begin when they leave.
2:14:46 PM
MS. BAIR opined that if offenders are following all of the rules
and have changed, they should not be held to such harsh mandates
like no driver's license and long probation. "Give them their
life back." Some [past inmates] are tagged as felons, which is
enough to bear. "When someone commits a crime, whether it has
to do with drinking, drugs, sexual crime, or theft, the crime
then becomes an issue between that person and the State of
Alaska, so as the legislature of the State of Alaska, I feel
strongly that it behooves you to search for concrete answers to
the questions I've presented."
2:15:23 PM
CHAIR KELLER noted that the committee has her written testimony,
and he hopes the Department of Corrections will forward some
information on the questions she asked.
LISA RIEGER, General Counsel, Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC),
noted that she was on the Department of Corrections Reentry Task
Force and she was an associate professor at UAA [University of
Alaska, Anchorage] Justice Center for 11 years. The Cook Inlet
Tribal Council is in support of SB 64, which focuses on the
barriers to success for men and women reentering after
incarceration. She said that the Reentry Task Force addressed
the same issues of increasing success, saving state resources,
and reducing crime. She stated that CITC supports SB 64 because
it provides important new innovations to turn around Alaska's
recidivism rate. Alaska's new prison will be beyond capacity
soon unless the state addresses substance abuse and addiction,
which leads to so many offenses, particularly to so many
violations of probation and parole. The CITC specifically
supports the evidence-based practices of the 24/7 and PACE
programs; the Justice Commission; the Recidivism Reduction Fund-
which is visionary for long-term stability and represents
strategic investments for the state; and the felony threshold
for property crimes.
2:17:32 PM
MS. RIEGER added that CITC particularly supports the section of
SB 64 that clarifies credit for time served in residential
programs that contribute to reducing recidivism. She said CITC
has been operating Chanlyut, a rehabilitation program for men
recently released from prison or facing substance abuse or
homelessness. Chanlyut is modeled after the successful Delancey
Street program from California and operates on the principle
that reinforcing accountability for actions, learning a strong
work ethic, and having responsibility for others is key to
turning lives around without the use of professional staff.
Chanlyut is a 24/7 residential program located in Anchorage, and
since the start of the program six years ago, it has served over
175 men and saved the state millions of dollars by housing men
who would have been in a corrections facility. There are many
success stories, she explained. The graduates leave the program
having earned everything they have themselves. They have been
clean and sober for two years, they have a job, and they have
the where-with-all to set themselves up with apartments,
vehicles, and other needs from money they saved in their last
months of their residency.
2:18:47 PM
MS. RIEGER said that the key to Chanlyut's success is the
mandatory work component and the complete responsibility each
man has for the maintenance of the house and the program. "In
fact, income for our Chanlyut businesses support 35 percent of
program expenses. We describe it as learning to live life on
life's terms without the use of drugs or alcohol and with taking
responsibility for their lives through honest work," she
explained. Requirements and expectations for behavior are so
high that some residents have requested returning to jail rather
than complete the Chanlyut program. The opportunities offered
in SB 64 align with Chanlyut, and CITC strongly supports the
bill, she stated. There is one change that CITC would like
under the Recidivism Reduction Grant Program provision where [in
order to qualify for a grant] the bill requires the program to
provide treatment for substance abuse. She requested the
addition of "if required by assessment," because if an inmate
received treatment inside the institution he or she may not need
treatment during the transition. The requirement could be a
huge burden for the programs and for employment schedules for
those working in the community, she opined. Only those who
really need it should be occupying space, she added.
2:20:41 PM
MELINDA MERRILL, Manager, Community Affairs, Fred Meyer Stores,
said she is joined by Scott Bringhurst, vice president of loss
prevention. She requested that the felony threshold in SB 64 be
returned to the $750 level. She said she is a little sorry that
she has to be the "bad guy" regarding the testimony, but the
Fred Meyer Company has a different perspective. Those stealing
$500 to $750 worth of items from the stores are not kids making
one stupid mistake, and they are not one-timers who just have
bad judgment or peer pressure. They are savvy young adults who
are making a living off the thefts and are part of organized
crime rings. She said that these people know Fred Meyer's loss
prevention strategies-they pay attention to this stuff. They
know what employees can and cannot do to stop them, and they
know exactly how much they can steal with regard to the crime
rank. They are walking out with things that they know they can
get away with and they are doing it multiple, multiple times,
she stated.
2:23:09 PM
MS. MERRILL gave an example of one person who the store has
apprehended 11 times since 2007 and who has stolen almost $3,500
worth of items, but he has done it in small increments. Only
twice has his theft been valued at over $500, she explained. So
he is a career criminal, and there is nothing to stop him and
nothing to get him into the system to start getting the help and
correction that he needs. She asked again that the felony
threshold be put back to the $750 level. "We understand the
realities out there of the prison system and the costs, but what
you do when you raise it that much higher is you assist the
career criminal and ... there's no place to get them into the
system and start getting them into the resources that Ms. Rieger
talked about."
2:24:10 PM
REPRESENTATIVE LANCE PRUITT asked about the potential impact in
prices to consumers based on changes found in SB 64, whereby
criminals will be able to walk out with higher cost items.
2:24:54 PM
MS. MERRILL said that, overall, these kinds of changes in
criminal limits absolutely raises the cost of goods to
consumers. "We function in capitalist America; we need to make
a profit; we have shareholders; we need to pay our employees
good wages because the communities we operate in expect
that...." When that level of items are walking out of the
store, it affects the price of goods. She said that does not
mean Fred Meyer will raise its prices in Alaska; the [pricing]
process is on a broader scale. Fred Meyer is in business to
give customers the best deal, "because we want them to come in
and get it from us," she stated, "so we don't want to raise our
prices unless we have to." She reiterated that the bill will
have an effect on consumer prices.
2:26:07 PM
REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX questioned if the reason why Fred Meyer
would lose money if this threshold were raised is because the
police are not going to investigate as much.
2:26:34 PM
SCOTT BRINGHURST, Vice President, Loss Prevention, Fred Meyer
Stores, answered that it is because the threat of punishment
that includes incarceration is gone. Over 2 percent of Fred
Meyer sales are lost to theft, and with the slim margins the
store operates with, [the losses] will increase consumer prices
at some point in time. The threat of the felony prosecution is
what helps the business, and he sees many thefts of items valued
at just under the $500 threshold. [The thieves] truly do learn
what the limits are and they take advantage of them. Often,
they get a citation, and in a lot of cases they will not get
booked or taken to the police station for any type of
fingerprinting or identification, he stated. The organized
groups are the biggest problem, and they will take advantage of
the raised threshold level.
2:28:34 PM
TOM BUTLER, Colonel, Montana Highway Patrol, said that in 2010
one county in Montana started the 24/7 [sobriety] pilot program
for second-offense DUI [Driving Under the Influence]. In 2011,
a state-wide bill was passed, which was updated in 2013 to apply
to crimes other than DUIs. The programs include crimes where
alcohol was a nexus and where the penalty was potentially six
months or longer. "We've got the program rolled out to almost
65 percent of the population in Montana," and it is now at the
point where the statistics on recidivism can be analyzed. For
the most part, the Montana program mirrors the South Dakota
program and people are expecting similar results. He said that
in 2013 Montana's alcohol-related fatalities were down by nearly
30 percent, and he is hoping to see similar results for 2014.
He noted that he described the program in detail to several
committees and will not take up the time to do so now.
2:30:43 PM
CHAIR KELLER asked if Montana has a limited license program for
DUIs.
COLONEL BUTLER said yes, and from his experience of 23 years in
law enforcement, he has found that in order to live in Montana
one must drive because of the geography and lack of public
transportation. "We get into this big black hole of suspending
people's driver's licenses for nearly everything under the sun
and it doesn't do any good," he stated. It can get people into
problems with driver's license points, insurance, fines, and
ultimately jail, and there are some people who can never climb
out of that hole. Part of the reason he was excited when
learning about the 24/7 program is that a person performing well
under the program can keep driving. He noted that he has not
read the specific amendment to SB 64 that came out today, but he
encouraged the committee to look very hard at it. He does not
have any statistics on what the suspended driver's license
problem is in Alaska, "but I would suspect that it is similar to
Montana." It is almost a feel-good issue where everybody thinks
that by taking away a license, the offenders are not going to
drive. "I'm here to tell you that that is not the case. If you
can keep people sober with this program and give them a
restricted driver's license, in my mind you're doing a great
service as far as safety goes for the citizens of Alaska."
2:32:25 PM
CHAIR KELLER asked for details on how the limited license works.
He asked if it applies to misdemeanor DUIs.
COLONEL BUTLER said the program in Montana for DUI [indisc.] is
for the second or subsequent offense, and there is a whole
scheme of different driver's license suspensions that are built
into that based on the offense. But offenders who enter the
24/7 program are allowed to obtain a restricted driver's license
to drive to work or to the doctor, for example. Traditionally,
the state would suspend the driver's license for a person who
was convicted of an offense. He said that [keeping the license]
is the carrot for entering the 24/7 program, and those people
would need to drive to work, the store and other places, so they
were driving anyway. The program is keeping these people out of
the criminal justice system because they are sober and they
still have a driver's license, he concluded.
2:34:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said the language being talked about is
the alcohol and substance abuse monitoring program, which will
require offenders to pay for the twice-a-day testing. He asked
about the cost of participating in the program.
COLONEL BUTLER answered that in Montana the cost is $2 per test,
which is $4 per day. The tests are generally run for 2 hours in
the morning and 2 hours in the evening. There was a portion of
Montana's legislature that was very nervous about the financial
implications of the program on a defendant. The average BAC
[blood alcohol concentration] for a DUI arrest is 0.186, and a
200-pound man would have to spend $11 to $25 to get to that BAC
level, and "we have yet to see any sort of financial problems
related to this program in all the jurisdictions where it has
been rolled out across the state." Other vices are paired up
with alcohol use, and when alcohol is taken away from people it
leaves them with more money.
2:36:42 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG noted that Alaska has large areas
without roads so he is not sure how the program would work. He
gave the example of a person from a village getting a DUI in
Anchorage and going back to the village where the person may
live a subsistence life style.
2:37:38 PM
COLONEL BUTLER said Montana wrote the law to allow the judiciary
to determine if the 24/7 program was a good fit for each person.
If there are no roads and a person does not have a car, there
may not be a benefit to twice daily testing. There may not be
enough people in the village to warrant a testing facility, he
added. He noted that Helena is the state capital of Montana, and
82 miles to the north is a town called Augusta, which is in the
same county. He said there was no way someone would be forced
to drive that distance twice a day round trip. So, the state
chose to use transdermal alcohol monitoring or SCRAM bracelets
for those people who could not easily access a testing center.
2:39:26 PM
CHAIR KELLER noted that the language in SB 64 contains "if
practicable" in order to address those situations.
CHRIS NETTELS, President and Owner, GeoTek Alaska, said he is
concerned with the felony/misdemeanor threshold in SB 64 and is
testifying on behalf of his company and the National Federation
of Independent Businesses. Theft is wrong and it is a pet peeve
of his as a business owner. His company has had numerous thefts
and attempts at theft, and it is not just a young person who is
impaired by drinking-these are people who come around,
particularly on a Saturday night, to industrial sites in
Anchorage and help themselves to whatever they can get. He said
his company does a lot of work under municipal, state, and
federal contracts, and the contracts are getting extremely
competitive. He noted that he just won a $350,000 contract by
less than $500.
2:42:27 PM
CHAIR KELLER said there are no more speakers, but public
testimony will remain open.
REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX asked if the Department of Law still does
plea bargaining. If there were a low felony theft threshold,
would DOL have the discretion to enter into plea bargaining for
first offenders?
ANNE CARPENETI, Assistant Attorney General, Legal Services
Section, Criminal Division, Department of Law (DOL), said she
would be better prepared if she had known the question was
coming up. Certain cases use plea bargaining, but the state no
longer does sentence bargaining for certain person crimes, but
she would like to review the policy, she said.
2:45:20 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG asked Ms. Carpeneti for the various
kinds of bargaining definitions and the state's policies. He
said he is also confused by the different types of immunity, and
he would like that information as well.
MS. CARPENETI said immunity is not something that the DOL has a
policy on, it is the law.
REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG requested the definition of immunity.
CHAIR KELLER set aside SB 64.