Legislature(2013 - 2014)BUTROVICH 205
02/06/2014 09:00 AM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Department of Law-medicaid Fraud Control Unit | |
| SB104 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | SB 104 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 104-APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE DIVIDEND FUND
10:00:26 AM
CHAIR DYSON announced that the committee is now going to take up
SB 104.
10:00:39 AM
SENATOR GIESSEL moved to adopt work draft Committee Substitute
(CS) for SB 104, labeled 28-LS0847\Y, as the working document to
replace Senate Bill 104 labeled 28-LS0847\P.
CHAIR DYSON announced that without objection, Version Y was the
working document before the committee.
CHAIR DYSON, SB 104's sponsor, commented that a continuing error
he has made in the legislature is to work very hard on what he
thought was good legislation and finding that the execution of
the legislation fell significantly short of what the intentions.
He expressed that his fault has been not following up. He
revealed that he worked with Representative Berkowitz a decade
ago on the whole western-government concept of restorative
justice for victims to a pre-offence condition. He noted that
when possible, perpetrators are restored to a useful role in
life as well.
He revealed that the legislature passed legislation in 1988 to
make felons and certain misdemeanants ineligible for their PFD
with the intent that the money go for victim restitution. He
remarked that by and large, the intended PFD restitution has not
happened. He said several heinous crimes lead to the state
instituting the Violent Crimes Compensation Board (VCCB). He
said he has found out through research that approximately
$100,000 out of the approximate $500,000 in annual court-ordered
restitution is being collected from the agencies that are
responsible for getting money to victims. He remarked that
victims were going a long time with no help. He set forth a fact
that he felt startling where approximately $12 million to $13
million in prisoners' PFD funds have gone towards inmate
healthcare rather than towards the compensation fund.
He said the intent in SB 104 is to fix the system as intended
and to clear up a couple of barriers within the existing
statute. He asserted that some of the state's agencies have an
agency-centric view of what should happen with the funds as
opposed to legislature's clear intent. He noted that the
Governor is quite enthusiastic about what the legislature is
doing. He said the involved agencies are working with his office
and providing good feedback to make the bill better, hence the
CS before the committee.
10:05:26 AM
JOSHUA BANKS, Staff for Senator Dyson, Alaska State Legislature,
Juneau, Alaska; provided a CS overview for SB 104.
MR. BANKS set forth that the problem SB 104 is trying to address
is as follows:
· Fulfill the constitutional right of victims to receive
restitution and compensation. There are two basic
vehicles that the state has historically used to achieve
victim restitution: DOL Collections Unit (DOL-CU) and the
Violent Crimes Compensation Board (VCCB).
· DOL-CU can only help victims after a conviction, if there
is a conviction. The end result leaves many victims of
horrific crimes without compensation or any restitution.
On the other hand, VCCB is able to give compensation as
soon as there is a police report, sometimes years before
a conviction is even given.
MR. BANKS noted that in FY2012, VCCB was awarded $637,154 in
court-ordered restitution, but only $47,652 was received.
CHAIR DYSON asked to clarify that VCCB's award is court-ordered.
MR. BANKS answered yes. He continued that the majority of
restitution funds that DOL receives are through garnishing PFDs.
He said currently under AS 43.23.005, a number of restitution
ordered offenders are ineligible for the PFDs that the state
cannot garnish. Unfortunately the majority of individual PFDs
have gone to DOC: 56 percent in FY2006 and 84 percent in FY2014.
10:08:04 AM
He addressed SB 104's four primary goals as follows:
1. Seeks to restore crime victims to a pre-offense condition.
2. Establishes a reliable funding source for VCCB.
3. Sets a priority for use of the Criminal Fund.
4. Uses a restitution vehicle that already exists in law.
CHAIR DYSON added that when he and Representative Berkowitz did
the restitution legislation a decade ago, it was clearly
established that the first priority for any funds that the
perpetrator had was to go to the victim. He noted that
subsequent legislation added child support to the number one
priority. He stressed that he and Representative Berkowitz made
it very clear that court costs were secondary to victims and
children. He asserted that SB 104 also emphasizes victims and
children.
MR. BANKS detailed that there is no amount of money that can be
given to repair the victim's emotional and physical damage. He
asserted that the primary goal is to use the criminal funds to
give some form of relief in compensation for the victims and to
establish a reliable funding source for VCCB. He noted that the
current statute has no priority set for how the PFD Criminal
Fund (PFD-CM) is to be used. The statute that is primarily used
is AS 43.23.028(B) that simply states what agencies can receive
money from PFD-CM. He detailed that AS 43.23.028(B) has no
priority set to which agency should receive more of the fund; it
is up to Governor and the legislature to decide. He said the
intent is to create a reliable funding source for VCCB and to
prioritize PFD-CM so that victims come first. He reiterated that
the majority of PFD-CM funds have gone to DOC. He remarked that
prisoners are indirectly receiving their lost PFDs when the DOC
obtains funds that should be directed to the PFD-CM. He
summarized that SB 104 uses the current restitution vehicle by
making priority changes to PFD-CM.
10:11:38 AM
MR. BANKS reviewed the PFD-CM history. HB 245 passed in 1988 to
make convicted felons ineligible for a PFD. There was intent
language in HB 245 that directed the money to go towards victim
compensation with VCCB. He said AS 43.23.005(d) was expanded to
also include incarcerated felons, misdemeanants with a prior
felony, and third time misdemeanants. He added that since 1988,
recipients for PFD-CM was expanded to include DOC. He noted that
DOC was not originally intended to be a PFD-CM.
He pointed out that the primary difference with the CS is to
change the PFD-CF's primary recipient to VCCB as opposed to DOL.
He said the belief is that VCCB can better determine needs and
provide funds more quickly to victims.
10:14:35 AM
He detailed the CS sectional analysis as follows:
Section 1:
(a) Makes language uniform with other Criminal
Fund statutes.
(b) Ensures that money goes towards priority
order created in AS 43.23.031.
Section 3:
(a) Creates priority order for Criminal Fund:
• VCCB for victim compensation,
• CSSD for child support arrearages,
• State approved rehabilitation programs,
• Other incarceration cost.
(b) VCCB will send DOR amount of compensable
claims for previous fiscal year.
(c) CSSD will send amount owed for child support
arrearages.
(d) Court system will send amount owed for
court-ordered drug and alcohol treatment.
(e) DOR will use reports to determine the amount
each agency should receive from the PFD-CF.
(f) DOR will submit a report with the Operating
Budget listing the amounts determined under
(e).
CHAIR DYSON asked Mr. Banks to continue his sectional analysis
at the next committee meeting. He noted that there is no known
opposition to SB 104 and he believes the bill is an important
piece of legislation. He expressed his intent to get SB 104 out
of committee the following week. He said he would commend to the
committee's attention the report from Legislative Research on
what has happened historically with victim compensation. He said
if the committee reads the report carefully, members may be as
angry due to the disturbing information. He said SB 104 has
great support from the Governor. He noted a meeting with the
Governor where the Governor expressed being surprised that
victims' compensation was not working the way it should be. He
asked Mr. Banks what department goes after criminal assets in
DOL.
10:17:26 AM
MR. BANKS replied the DOL Collections Unit (DOL-CU).
CHAIR DYSON said DOL-CU is working hard with limited resources.
He explained that he had a meeting with DOL-CU and noted that
the DOL-CU goes after financial assets, institutions, real
property, but does not have the time to go after private
property. He disclosed that DOL-CU conveyed that going after
somebody's car would cost more money than the asset is worth. He
stated that he would argue that a $100,000 airplane or a $30,000
pickup could make a huge difference to victims. He added that
Governor Parnell said collections can be contracted along with
using auction houses to sell seized assets. He summarized that
there is an ongoing effort to encourage DOL-CU to do more with
private property collections.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| MFCU Presentation to Alaska State Legislature 2014 Final (2).pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
|
| Kanehailua Press Release 10-17-13.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
|
| Press Release (Final) - MFCU Charges 7-9-13.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
|
| Press Release Batac 1-27-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
|
| State v Gunes Press Release.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
|
| CSSB 104 (STA).pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM SSTA 2/13/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB 104.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB 104 Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB104-DOA-DOF-01-13-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB104-DOA-VCCB-01-13-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB104-DOC-OC-01-21-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB104-LAW-CIV-02-01-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB104-DOR-CSSD-02-01-14.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB 104 Section Analysis.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| Leg. Research - Restitution.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM SSTA 2/13/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| SB 104 Presentation - 3.pptx |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |
| HB 245 1988.pdf |
SSTA 2/6/2014 9:00:00 AM |
SB 104 |