Legislature(2003 - 2004)
05/12/2003 03:25 PM House JUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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HB 303 - USE CRIMINAL FINES FOR YOUTH COURTS Number 0548 CHAIR McGUIRE announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 303, "An Act relating to youth courts and to the recommended use of criminal fines to fund the activities of youth courts; and relating to accounting for criminal fines." Number 0492 CLIFF STONE, Staff to Representative Dan Ogg, Alaska State Legislature, presented HB 303 on behalf of Representative Ogg, sponsor. He paraphrased from the sponsor statement, which in part read [original punctuation provided]: The foremost concern facing Youth Courts in the State of Alaska is funding. These programs are dependent on the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG), a federal grant administered through the Division of Juvenile Justice. The current federal budget for FY04 does not include any funding for the JAIBG. This bill would separately account for fines that have been imposed under the Sentencing and Probation statutes. The legislature may then appropriate a prescribed percentage of those fines that have been collected to the Youth Courts. The permissive "may" and the inclusion of the final sentence of the bill had been found by the Alaska Supreme Court to not constitute unconstitutional dedicated funds because the legislature continues to be able to appropriate money as it sees fit. MR. STONE, in conclusion, indicated that a portion of the funds for the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA) is acquired in a manner similar to what is being proposed by HB 303 for youth court funding. Number 0351 LISA ALBERT-KONECKY, Program Coordinator, Mat-Su Youth Court (MSYC), said that she has worked with juvenile offenders in Alaska for over 17 years. She continued: I'd like to state that youth courts around the state are doing an important job for Alaska. Because of limited funds for state probation-officer positions, the state cannot address juvenile [crime] in its earliest stage. Youth courts have taken a burden off the shoulders of local JPOs [juvenile probation officers], who can now concentrate on the more serious juvenile offenders. Currently, the Mat-Su Youth Court handles 25 percent of the juvenile offenders in the [Matanuska-Susitna] Mat-Su valley. Our recidivism rate has stayed under 9 percent and was 7.5 percent for last year. Other significant statistics include: our student members have put in over 19,000 hours of service to their community in the Mat-Su Youth Court since program inception, [and] our students average 104 hours each during their involvement in the program. The program also has taken on first-time "minor consuming" cited teens, [and] since starting this project, we have dealt with 108 of those cases, and those involved possession or consumption of alcohol. ... With an annual growth of rate of 7 percent, the Mat-Su valley needs all the resources we can possibly get to address our community needs. Please support House Bill 303. Thank you very much for your support. CHAIR McGUIRE predicted that there would be a tremendous amount of support for HB 303 from the House Judiciary Standing Committee. She thanked Ms. Albert-Konecky and the student MSYC members for their work. REPRESENTATIVE HOLM asked what the recidivism rate was prior to the MSYC's establishment. MS. ALBERT-KONECKY indicated that she did not have that information. Number 0201 REPRESENTATIVE HOLM said that it is difficult for him to approve of a program without any empirical data showing that that program serves a purpose. MS. ALBERT-KONECKY relayed that she'd formerly worked at McLaughlin Youth Center, which had a recidivism rate of around 50 percent. CHAIR McGUIRE remarked that one of the points of the program is the recognition that youth are going to commit crimes and, therefore, there has to be some societal mechanism for dealing with those crimes. She offered her belief that youth courts serve a portion of the community, and that judgment by a youthful offender's peers has a greater effect than judgment by adults. She said that she has seen the youth court program "do miracles," adding, "I think this program is amazing." MR. STONE, in an effort to allay Representative Holm's concern, said that a 2002 study done by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center gathered information from four states - Alaska, Arizona, Maryland, and Missouri. He said that according to this study, Alaska has only a 6-percent recidivism rate, whereas the "normal system" has a 23-percent recidivism rate. TAPE 03-61, SIDE A Number 0001 MR. STONE mentioned that all of the youth that participate in youth court programs are advocates of these programs. REPRESENTATIVE SAMUELS said that he agrees with the bill, and that he was involved with the Anchorage Youth Court. He offered his belief that often, before the youth court was established, nothing happened to youthful offenders because of the volume of cases in the regular system. REPRESENTATIVE GARA said that he is big supporter of youth courts, but acknowledged that the statistics before the committee are not particularly useful. He predicted, though, that the aforementioned study probably does show that the recidivism rate does go down in a particular area when a youth court is established in that area. He said he is wondering whether expanding the role of youth courts would allow them to deal effectively with more offenders than they are currently. REPRESENTATIVE OGG said that he'd been involved with Kodiak Teen Court, and indicated that there is a danger of a youth court not having a sufficient number of youths involved in it to meet its needs if a program expands too much. Before a youth court expands, he remarked, it has to have sufficient volunteers. Number 0352 VIRGINIA ESPENSHADE, Director, Kenai Peninsula Youth Court (KPYC), said that HB 303 is a great bill and she appreciates the committee's support of it. She relayed that the Urban Institute's study was specific to the Anchorage Youth Court; however, many of the 15-17 youth courts in Alaska are modeled after the Anchorage Youth Court. She remarked that the Anchorage Youth Court is unique in the country in that it accepts "not guilty" pleas. She urged the committee to read the Urban Institute's study, which compares the recidivism rate of youth courts with that of the regular court system for similar offenses. MS. ESPENSHADE predicted that if youth courts had more funding, it would directly impact the timeliness with which cases can be addressed, and would allow youth courts to become better equipped to follow up and monitor sentence compliance. She said that one of the main theories behind youth courts is a quick, timely, appropriate, peer-based response. She surmised that all youth courts are being "taxed to the limit," particularly with the addition of "minor consuming alcohol" cases. She relayed that the Kenai Peninsula Youth Court runs two programs, one in Homer and one in Kenai, and offered that two of the great things about all youth courts is that they are community-based and that the theory behind them appears to work in any kind of community. CHAIR McGUIRE said she appreciates Ms. Espenshade's hard work on behalf of the KPYC and thanked her for her testimony. Number 0491 WESTON EILER, Chair, Alaska Youth Court Sustainability Coalition, thanked the committee for hearing and supporting HB 303, and said he is a "member" of the Juneau Youth Court and has been so for the past three years. He then went on to say that youth courts also provide benefits to youth in general. There are approximately 1,000 youth court advocates around Alaska, in 17 different youth courts "from Ketchikan to Kotzebue," he added. Youth courts, in addition to being a positive alternative to the juvenile justice system, allow youth an opportunity to help their peers, get training in the "basic fundamentals of law in civil society" and in courtroom procedure, and receive mentoring by attorneys and judges. Youth courts empower youth to make a difference in their communities. CHAIR McGUIRE thanked Mr. Eiler for his work with youth courts. Number 0621 DOUG WOOLIVER, Administrative Attorney, Administrative Staff, Office of the Administrative Director, Alaska Court System (ACS), said that the ACS supports HB 303 and the concept of youth courts. The ACS is a big advocate of youth courts and sees a lot of their benefits, he added, noting that Chief Justice Dana Fabe mentioned youth courts in her "State of the Judiciary" address to the legislature. REPRESENTATIVE GARA asked whether youth courts would benefit from more funding. He said that he would like to see the ACS request more funding for that purpose. MR. WOOLIVER explained that aside from providing youth courts with courtrooms and mentors, the ACS is not officially affiliated with youth courts. He suggested that the best ones to answer the question of whether more funding would be helpful would be the youth courts themselves, since they knew their backlog better than he. REPRESENTATIVE GARA asked who submits the budget request for youth courts. REPRESENTATIVE OGG said that youth courts are funded by federal grants and various nonprofit organizations. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG asked what entity would be responsible for seeing that youth courts get the funding provided by HB 303, should it pass. REPRESENTATIVE OGG suggested that those funds would be distributed by the "granting agencies" that currently distribute funds for youth courts. CHAIR McGUIRE posited that that aspect of the legislation would be addressed in the House Finance Committee. Number 0839 REPRESENTATIVE GARA moved to report HB 303 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal zero note. There being no objection, HB 303 was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee.
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