HCR 28 - GET CLEARY ORDERS DISSOLVED OR CHANGED Number 278 JERRY LUCKHAUPT, Legislative Counsel, Legislative Affairs Agency, drafter of HCR 28, testified regarding the resolution. Mr. Luckhaupt explained the resolution basically instructs the Governor to instruct the Attorney General to try to get the state out of the consent decree that the state entered into in the Cleary case. He told the committee that Cleary was an institutional prison reform litigation instigated by an inmate by the name of Cleary and other inmates in the late 1970's, and the state settled the litigation in the early 1980's. Mr. Luckhaupt discussed the difficulties in getting out of consent decrees; however, he said, the federal government has loosened its rules, and enforcing consent decrees on local governments can be quite taxing and burdensome, and when government officials entered into consent decrees, they didn't necessarily have the interest of the state 20 years in the future. MR. LUCKHAUPT said the state can't afford the Cleary consent decree anymore, and although the Alaska Supreme Court doesn't have to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's lead, it goes to follow that if directed to do so by the administration and legislature, they would. Number 398 REP. GREEN asked if the perception of Alaska being a rich state would affect the argument that the state could no longer afford Cleary. Number 413 MR. LUCKHAUPT answered that since state judges signed the consent decree, any action would be heard in Alaska courts. Number 443 REP. PORTER recognized Commissioner Frank Prewitt, Department of Corrections. REP. PORTER told the committee that he was not going to move HCR 28 out of committee at the present time as Dean Guaneli of the Attorney General's Office had requested an executive session to discuss HCR 28, which would take place on Monday, February 14, 1994. Number 483 REP. PORTER said the next order of business was HB 277.