Legislature(2017 - 2018)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
01/25/2017 01:30 PM Senate JUDICIARY
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| Audio | Topic |
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| Presentations by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
January 25, 2017
1:34 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator John Coghill, Chair
Senator Mia Costello
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Pete Kelly
Senator Bill Wielechowski
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATIONS BY THE ALASKA CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSION
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
SUZANNE DIPIETRO, Executive Director
Alaska Judicial Council
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Delivered an overview of the Alaska
Criminal Justice Commission.
LT. KRIS SELL, Commissioner
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission;
Lieutenant, Juneau Police Department
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the implementation of SB 91.
BRENDA STANFILL, Commissioner
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission;
Executive Director, Interior Center for Non-Violent Living;
Member, Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the implementation of SB 91.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:34:03 PM
CHAIR JOHN COGHILL called the Senate Judiciary Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:34 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Costello, Meyer, Wielechowski, Kelly and
Chair Coghill. He asked the members to introduce their judiciary
staff and then he reviewed his expectations for this session.
^Presentations by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission
Presentations by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission
1:38:17 PM
CHAIR COGHILL announced the business before the committee would
be to hear presentations from the Alaska Criminal Justice
Commission about the work it has been tasked to do, the
implementation of SB 91, and the areas that may need additional
attention. He welcomed Suzanne DiPietro and thanked her work.
1:41:48 PM
SUZANNE DIPIETRO, Executive Director, Alaska Judicial Council,
delivered an overview of the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission
("Commission). She reminded the committee that the Commission
was established in 2014 as part of the omnibus crime bill,
Senate Bill 64. In 2016, Senate Bill 91 extended the sunset for
the Commission to June 30, 2021 and added duties. When the
Commission was created, the legislature asked the Alaska
Judicial Council to staff it and provide administrative support.
She reviewed the membership of the Alaska Criminal Justice
Commission ("Commission"). It has 11 voting and 2 non-voting
members. The two Governor appointees are from municipal law
enforcement and a victims' rights advocate. These positions
currently are filled by Lt. Kris Sell with the Juneau Police
Department and Brenda Stanfill with the Interior Center for Non-
Violent Living. The member from the Alaska Native community
designated by the Alaska Native Justice Center is Greg Razo,
Chair of Cook Inlet Region Incorporated (CIRI). The director of
the Mental Health Trust or designee is Jeff Jessee, Mental
Health Trust Authority (MHTA) Program Officer. The Chief Justice
appointees from each level of court are: District Court Judge
Stephanie Rhoades, Superior Court Judge Trevor Stephens, and
retired justice Alex Bryner. The state agency commissioners
include Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, Department of
Corrections Commissioner Dean Williams, Department of Public
Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, and Public Defender Quinlan
Steiner. The non-voting legislative appointees are appointed by
the Senate president and Speaker of the House of
Representatives. These members are Senator John Coghill and
Representative Matt Claman.
1:44:32 PM
MS. DIPIETRO reviewed the powers and duties of the Alaska
Criminal Justice Commission that are laid out in the authorizing
statute, AS 44.19.645. The first responsibility is to look at
the laws and practices in the criminal justice system and
evaluate whether the state is getting the desired results. The
factors to consider include protection of the public, community
condemnation of offenders, the rights of victims, the rights of
the accused, restitution and the principle of reformation. She
noted that some of these factors work together and some work in
tension.
The second general area of responsibility is data collection and
analysis. She said the Commission is in a unique position to
consider empirical information about how the system is or is not
working, and consider studies about the most effective things to
do in the criminal justice system. The Commission has embraced
the concept of being data-driven and making decisions based on
what is happening on the ground, what has proven to work, and
what has been proven not to work.
In 2015, legislature leadership sent a letter to the Commission
giving it a third special charge. The Commission was asked to
develop recommendations to meet the following goals: 1. avert
all future prison growth; 2. avert all future prison growth and
reduce the current prison population by 15 percent; and 3. avert
all future prison growth and reduce the current prison
population by 25 percent. A large part of the discussion about
meeting these goals if whether prison growth can be controlled
while public safety is protected.
MS. DIPIETRO reviewed the Commission methodology. The Commission
has been meeting approximately every other month since September
2014. Working groups were established to deal with technical
aspects of proposals. These groups met once or twice between
Commission meetings to get all the commissioners familiar with
the empirical information and data so they understood the
problems that were facing the state. Early in the process the
entire Commission agreedto make decisions based on evidence,
data, and empirical information.
1:49:22 PM
MS. DIPIETRO displayed a list of the factors included in AS
44.19.645 that the Commission must consider when if formulates
recommendations. She again pointed out that some of the factors
work in tension. "We want to be able to rehabilitate the
offender [and] we also want to have victims be heard. We want
the offenders to be able to pay restitution and to be able to
make the community whole for the harm that they've caused [and]
we also want to express community condemnation of their
conduct."
She talked about the ways the Commission has worked on the
statutory charge to "[S]olicit information and obtain views from
a variety of constituencies so as to obtain the broad spectrum
of views that exist with respect to possible approaches to
sentencing and administration of justice in the state." The
Commission electronically publishes all its meeting schedules
and sends email to people who want notification of meetings and
agendas. The Commission also actively solicits stakeholder
participation, public comment, and participation from rural
areas. She relayed that she is particularly proud of the work
the Commission did in 2014 and 2015 reaching out to victim
groups. She displayed a list of additional factors included in
AS 44.19.646 that the Commission considers when it makes
recommendations. They illustrate the complex level of analysis
the Commission undertakes.
1:53:19 PM
MS. DIPIETRO reviewed the challenges facing the Commission. One
of the motivating factors for the Commission is the rather high
rate of recidivism. Depending on the study, between 58 and 66
percent of inmates return to jail within three years. Most
return within six months of release. "Alaska can do better," she
said. The Commission has also learned through stakeholder
involvement that community treatment resources and violence
prevention programs are not available for many offenders who
need them.
The Commission is also very aware that Alaska's prison
population grew by 27 percent in the last decade. That is almost
three times faster than the growth of the resident population.
At that rate of growth, Alaska will exceed the current prison
bed capacity this year.
The Commission also learned that Alaska has been over reliant on
prison as a response to crime. The data shows that 75 percent of
offenders that entered prison in 2014 had been convicted of a
nonviolent offense. Prison time for sentenced felony offenders
had risen 31 percent over the past decade. In 2014, 28 percent
of prison beds were occupied by pretrial detainees. These are
people who had not yet been convicted of a crime. Studies from
other states and empirical information demonstrate that longer
prison stays do not reduce recidivism more than shorter prison
stays. She said that might seem counter intuitive but there is a
point of diminishing returns. The expense of keeping someone in
prison for a long period of time is not improving the recidivism
rates.
The Commission also learned that more than 60 percent of
offenders on probation and parole were returned to prison within
the first three months of release.
1:57:31 PM
CHAIR COGHILL noted that this topic had generated a lot of
interest; Senator Micciche, Senator Hughes and Representative
Reinbold were in the audience.
MS. DIPIETRO asked if there were any questions or comments.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said it's startling to hear that 75 percent
of inmates have committed a nonviolent crime, but he's been
hearing from constituents that nothing is happening to people
who commit property crimes. The police have also expressed
concern that there is not a lot of action they can take. He
asked her to comment.
MS. DIPIETRO said the Commission has heard those concerns from
both law enforcement officers and municipal prosecutors, and
there are two separate issues. The first is whether a person
should be incarcerated pretrial. The officer has to decide
whether to issue the person a summons to appear in court later
or arrest the person and take them to jail. Once they are in
jail, it's a matter of whether they can make bail or be held
until their case is resolved. The practice in this state has
been to arrest and rely on prison. The Commission had to
consider whether that was a good use of prison beds. The
Commission learned that about 50 percent of the people that were
arrested, taken to jail, and charged with a crime were held the
entire time before their case was resolved. [Senate Bill 91] had
a solution that is being implemented.
The second issue is about whether a person should receive jail
time as part of their sanction. This also relates to Alaska's
overreliance on prisons. In 2014 over 300 people were serving a
sentence for stealing something that was worth less than $250.
Ninety-three percent of the cases were shoplifting, and
toiletries and alcohol were most frequently stolen. On average,
those people spent 23 days in jail.
CHAIR COGHILL said the committee will look at the bail schedule,
the escalating incidence of small theft crimes, and sentencing
associated with class C felonies. He hopes to come out of the
next two meetings with some recommendations.
2:03:37 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said he too has heard that crime is up in
Anchorage and people are scared because of the bill that passed.
He asked her to remind the committee about which portions of
Senate Bill 91 have been implemented. If areas need to be
changed that should be said, but if there is a misperception it
should be corrected. He asked if she has empirical data that
would lead her to believe that the bill has led to an overall
uptick in crime in Alaska.
MS. DIPIETRO said the commission has been looking at the crime
rate in Alaska and Anchorage over 30 years, and there have been
times in the past when the rate was quite a bit higher than it
is now. The current uptick in crime began 2-3 years ago, before
the Commission was created. She explained that the bill has
three parts. The part that became effective in July 2016 had to
do with penalties for crimes. The part that became effective in
January 2017 has to do with the changes in the way that people
on felony probation and parole are supervised. The third part,
that has not gone into effect yet, has to do with the pretrial
release provisions.
She said she too has heard that people are confused about the
bail schedule. That is something that the presiding judges of
the Court System put into effect and it wasn't really part of
the bill. The idea was that by 2018 there will be important
changes to the pretrial process. There will be a tool to help
attorneys and judges decide who can be safely released while
they are waiting for their case to be resolved and who should be
held. She said both the Department of Corrections and the
Commission are working hard to implement that piece.
CHAIR COGHILL commented that timelines are an issue in several
areas.
MS. DIPIETRO relayed that she is personally excited about some
of the changes in probation and parole.
2:10:06 PM
MS. DIPIETRO directed attention to the Alaska Criminal Justice
Commission report in the packets on alcohol-related offenses in
Title 28. This was mandated by Senate Bill 91. The Commission
looked at what is currently happening with DUI and refusal
offenses and what studies show is effective. The Commission also
made recommendations for the legislature to consider.
CHAIR COGHILL commented that the committee will also be looking
at the Title 4 reforms.
MS. DIPIETRO said the legislature also directed the Commission
to submit a restitution report. It contains several
recommendations on ways to improve restitution collection for
victims of crime. The report also provides a substantial
background on restitution processes in Alaska and statistics on
restitution collection. She noted that the Commission will
continue to work on restorative justice going forward.
Senate Bill 91 also mandates a report on the potential for
social impact bonds to reduce recidivism rates. This report
explains how social impact bonds work, how they might be used in
conjunction with programs that reduce recidivism, and how other
similar projects have worked in other states.
On November 1, 2016, the Commission submitted its annual report
to the legislature. It summarizes the Commission's work in the
past year and lays out its plans for the future.
CHAIR COGHILL relayed that each of the reports are in members'
packets.
2:13:57 PM
MS. DIPIETRO discussed other recommendations the Commission has
made. Recognizing the connection between behavioral health
issues and criminal offenses, the Commission formed a behavioral
health committee. It is looking at how the behavioral health and
criminal justice systems can work together to reduce recidivism.
To this end, the Commission has recommended the Commissioner of
the Department of Health and Social Services become a member of
the Commission. A second recommendation is that the legislature
enact a statute creating a standardized "release of information"
form that will be universally accepted by all state-funded
agencies providing health and behavioral health services.
The Commission also reviewed Alaska's presumptive sentencing
structure and proposes a mitigator that would allow prosecutors,
defense attorneys, and victims to resolve cases more timely.
CHAIR COGHILL requested a final report to the legislature that
lists all the recommendations.
2:15:41 PM
MS. DIPIETRO reviewed the future work of the Commission. As
required by Senate Bill 91, the Commission formed a workgroup to
study Alaska's laws on sex-related offenses to determine "if
there are circumstances under which victims' rights, public
safety, and the rehabilitation of offenders are better served by
changing the existing law." This is a complex topic and there
isn't a timeline for the report.
Senate Bill 91 also directed the Commission to oversee the
implementation of the statutory changes it brought about. The
Commission is collecting data from the Department of
Corrections, the Alaska Court System, and the Department of
Public Safety to monitor the effect of new criminal laws. The
data will be reported to the legislature in November of 2017.
MS. DIPIETRO said the Commission also is reviewing the concerns
that have been expressed about the implementation of Senate Bill
91 and hopes to get through the list by Friday.
2:17:25 PM
LT. KRIS SELL, Commissioner, Alaska Criminal Justice Commission,
said she works as a lieutenant for the Juneau Police Department.
She has been on the Commission since it started, and she joined
with a commitment to be tough on crime, just as she has
throughout her law enforcement career. "I want people who are
hurting other people to be in jail and I want us to be safe
walking our streets." She related that she sat through the first
year of meetings with her arms mentally crossed, because there
was a lot of science she did not want to hear. Nevertheless, she
was forced to confront some of her secret theories about
criminal behavior.
She described the secret theory that there's a sweet spot that
correlates the time in prison with a certain crime. After the
person serves their time in prison, they can be released and the
public will be safe. She admitted that the science doesn't bear
that out. When she saw she was arresting the same people
repeatedly she finally had to admit that continuing addiction or
untreated mental illness has a lot to do with why people
continue to commit crimes. "I had to come to a place in my own
reasoning that what I was thinking was tough on crime was
actually just being tough on people."
LT. SELL related that when she made a mistake as a child it
didn't matter why she did it or what she was thinking. She was
punished. She opined that the state has been treating its
criminal population in much the same way, and it hasn't worked
out very well.
LT. SELL said her new vision is to look at why a person
committed a crime, identify the motivator to change the
behavior, and relentlessly supervise that. Put things in place
like drug testing, required employment, and supervision that
actually treats the situation. It's being tough on crime by
rehabilitating the person from being a criminal. These things
cost money and budgets are getting smaller, so the idea is to
try to save money by keeping people out of prison and spending
that money on things that actually change the criminal behavior.
She acknowledged that some parts of the bill have not been
implemented and some didn't work out as envisioned. The 18
months suspended sentence for a class C felony is an example.
Some felons would rather flat-time so they won't need to be drug
tested or supervised when they are released. Drug and alcohol
treatment is expensive, but the cost of not providing treatment
is also very expensive. It just shifts the expense to whatever
the drug addict steals to feed his/her habit.
2:27:57 PM
LT. SELL concluded her comments saying "It's always been my
intent to be tough on crime. I think we owe that to our
communities, but we need to resist the emotional satisfaction of
believing that being tough on people is the same thing."
2:29:25 PM
CHAIR COGHILL said there has been a lot of outcry that the tools
for petty theft have not worked. The police need the tools to
hold offenders so they don't become scofflaws.
LT. SELL said she didn't foresee the operational problems
associated with changing violating conditions of release to a
violation. It was a surprise when judges said they didn't have
the authority to open the underlying case.
CHAIR COGHILL said he likes the idea of being tough on crime but
not tough on people.
LT. SELL added that refusing to provide treatment for a drug
addict encourages crime.
2:32:06 PM
SENATOR COSTELLO expressed appreciation for the response she has
gotten from Ms. DiPietro, the Mayor of Anchorage, the head of
the crime unit for the Anchorage Police Department, the director
of the Alaska State Troopers, the deputy commissioner of the
Department of Public Safety, the member of Recovery Alaska, and
the UAA Justice Center for participating in the roundtable in
her community to discuss concerns about Senate Bill 91.
She said a comment on a social media site held legislators
responsible for police no longer having the tools to do their
job. She asked, "Have we in any way affected your personal
interaction with an Alaskan who's been victimized and you're
looking at what to do with the perpetrator?"
LT. SELL said each situation is different, but there has been
some frustration expressed about no jail time for the first-
class C felony. There are impacts that are a response to the
bill, there's interplay with other things like less prosecutions
because district attorney offices don't have adequate funding to
prosecute, and there is a bail schedule that suggests OR release
for all misdemeanor crimes unless a judge is contacted. At the
same time, the Department of Corrections (DOC) is trying to
manage the risk of in-custody deaths by not taking people who
are very drunk into custody. Those are the people that often
commit crimes so that consumes more resources for law
enforcement.
A lot of things are going on in the same environment as Senate
Bill 91 and several of those things contribute to frustration
for law enforcement and the public.
2:38:23 PM
CHAIR COGHILL said the level of frustration has risen and Senate
Bill 91 has become the focus of those frustrations. What this
committee will do is try to address those frustrations. "Drugs
and alcohol and behavioral health [issues] are just kicking the
feet out from under us."
LT. SELL said it's a tough environment right now, but Senate
Bill 91 did not happen in a vacuum.
2:40:21 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI related the frustration and resistance he
is hearing from both constituents and the police. One
constituent maintained a lady was robbed because of SB 91 and
that the bill would protect the offender from arrest even if the
police did catch him.
LT. SELL said that is probably a reference to the change in
penalty for a first-time class C felony.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI emphasized the need to effectively
communicate to the police about what the bill actually does. "If
there are problems, I want to address those problems head on."
LT. SELL agreed that communication about the bail schedule needs
to improve because it appears that there is no visible
enforcement. She related that officers in Anchorage quit calling
magistrates, even when they thought someone was dangerous,
because the magistrates wouldn't approve any bail. "We need to
drill down on what exactly caused that particular assessment."
CHAIR COGHILL said it's also important to keep in mind that the
Municipality of Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, and North Pole
have police departments that enforce misdemeanants whereas the
rest of Alaska is enforced by the state. "We don't want to shift
things to communities if they don't have the resources."
CHAIR COGHILL thanked Lt. Sell and invited Ms. Stanfill to come
forward.
2:44:03 PM
BRENDA STANFILL, Commissioner, Alaska Criminal Justice
Commission, stated that she is also the Executive Director of
the Interior Center for Non-Violent Living and a member of the
Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She relayed
that she too came to the Commission with a tough on crime
mindset after working 21 years in social services. She had
advocated for tougher penalties when she saw the same people
show up as a new victim year after year. The advocacy was
successful, and the legislature imposed felony level penalties
for repeated domestic violence and theft offenses. But it didn't
reduce the numbers of these crimes.
She referred to the previous testimony that the uptick in crime
started 2-3 years ago. She pointed out that at that same time,
the mental health system in Fairbanks went bankrupt. Assisted
living homes closed and there were just eight treatment beds in
the entire community. Communities statewide experienced the same
sort of cutbacks and opioids and heroin use increased. She said
she never found a needle for the first 15-16 years that she
operated the Fairbanks shelter, but now it's common to find
needles when a room is cleaned.
Detox services are similarly difficult to access. Chronic
inebriates used jail as a homeless shelter but the new OR
release conditions mean they can't stay even when it's 50
degrees below and they want to stay in jail. She relayed that
this has caused some violent outbursts and jeopardized the
safety of law enforcement. "We have to be aware that when you
have no resources for where you can go and it's 50 below and
you're cold and you're drunk, you're going to do something to
get in jail, because that's the only place safe for you to go
right then."
MS. STANFILL said she has embraced the statement that "We can't
criminalize our way out of social issues." What she's excited
about now is that they are starting to see the results of the
reinvestment dollars that SB 91 put into prevention programs
such as "Coaching Boys to Men." She related a story that ended
tragically and emphasized the pressing need to provide resources
so victims don't become offenders. She also highlighted the
positive experience of a magistrate. She asked what made a
difference for him and he said three people entered his life at
a pivotal point and helped him get into sports.
She said she understands the frustrations with Senate Bill 91
from the victim advocacy perspective, but she believes it was
the right thing to do. Putting people in jail without any
opportunity for treatment just perpetuates the cycle. She
expressed willingness to go back and take another look at the
things the Commission may have gotten wrong and excitement about
what it continues to do. She concluded, "As the person who is
representing victims, we really need to focus on restitution."
CHAIR COGHILL thanked Ms. Stanfill and all the Commission
members and briefly discussed the agenda going forward.
2:58:24 PM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Chair Coghill adjourned the Senate Judiciary Standing Committee
meeting at 2:58 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| ACJC Behavioral Health Recommendations.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |
| ACJC Annual Report.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |
| ACJC Mitigator Recommendation.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |
| ACJC Restitution Report.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |
| ACJC Presentation.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |
| ACJC Title 28 Report.pdf |
SJUD 1/25/2017 1:30:00 PM |
Alaska Criminal Justice Commission |