HB 16 - JUVENILE DELINQUENCY PROCEDURES MR. BRUCE CAMPBELL, staff to Representative Pete Kelly, presented HB 16 as Rep. Kelly's third substantial bill regarding juvenile justice matters. He said Rep. Kelly worked with the Governor as well as several departments on this bill. MR. CAMPBELL said this bill will establish dual sentencing procedures which will give juveniles both a juvenile and an adult sentence and allow them to serve the former sentence unless their behavior necessitates the latter. MR. CAMPBELL explained the bill also clearly authorizes municipalities to take minors before civil court and gives the Department of Health, Education and Social Services the ability to get involved in the informal adjudication process and encourages all involved agencies to resolve problems at the earliest, most correctable levels. MR. CAMPBELL said the bill also adds secure and semi-secure residential facilities for minors with drug, alcohol and developmental disorders, allowing these offenders to remain in state. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if there was an amendment to the bill and MR. CAMPBELL said there was an amendment he hoped the committee would consider. The amendment concerned the recent murder of taxi drivers in Anchorage, a crime in which a minor offender would be waived automatically into adult court. However, in the interpretation of the waiver provision, it was ruled that could only happen after an "arraignment." This would require a grand jury indictment, and goes against the intent of the bill. The amendment clarifies these juveniles could be waived into adult court without a grand jury indictment. Number 315 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR agreed that was not the intent of the waiver bill and expressed his appreciation for this legislation and the fix it makes to the juvenile waiver process. SENATOR ELLIS asked what process the task force used to make recommendations and if there were provisions in the bill that did not originate from the task force, or if there were task force recommendations that had not been included in the bill. MR. CAMPBELL noted section six dealing with a witness protection program did not come out of the task force process and he believed there were one or two provisions from the task force report that were left out. MR. CAMPBELL indicated one of these changes was a change in wording that would have made the bill much longer and more complex. Number 362 MS. MARGO KNUTH, representing the Department of Law, worked with the Youth and Justice Forum in 1996 to formulate their lengthy report. MS. KNUTH said this was a bipartisan group that met over the course of a year and concerned itself with the increase in youth crime in Alaska. MS. KNUTH said the group discovered that part of the problem was a heightened awareness of youth crime created a perception of an increase in juvenile crime. Alaska is a growing state and there are simply more kids living here. MS. KNUTH said the conference came up with two major conclusions. First, they decided the "most bang for the buck" would come from increased funding for prevention and early intervention. She said the smart start program is an outgrowth of that conclusion. MS. KNUTH said the second conclusion the conference reached was regarding the importance of civil penalties. She said it is not how large or small the consequences are, but how likely they are to be enforced that makes them effective. She suggested consistent small consequences are extremely effective for the low level offender and there is currently a group of these lower level offenses that are drawing no response. MS. KNUTH said this bill will authorize communities to deal with these offenses through civil penalties and a community court system. On the other end of the spectrum, MS. KNUTH said the conference established that there is a small group of serious offenders who need to be identified and closely monitored. She said this is where the dual sentencing provisions come in. She said those juveniles at risk for becoming serious offenders will be given once last chance in the form of a dual sentence. If they abide by the provisions set out by the court under their juvenile sentence (including drug/alcohol treatment, restitution, etc.) they end up with no adult conviction and no adult record. However, if they fail to abide by the conditions they are waived into their adult sentence. MS. KNUTH said this is proving to be effective, and it puts the person's future into their own hands and allows them to control their fate. MS. KNUTH was "fairly optimistic" this bill would help juvenile offenders at both sides of the spectrum. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked MS. KNUTH if she had any concerns about the amendment. MS. KNUTH said the amendment seemed appropriate with the intent of the original legislation and was a good fix to the problem. Number 438 MS. BARBARA BRINK, Alaska Public Defender, thanked the sponsor for making improvements to the bill but testified that treating more kids like adults will not necessarily be a more effective crime fighting measure. MS. BRINK suggested we should remember that there has not been a great increase in juvenile arrests and we should consider that we may be reacting to the perception of a problem rather than a problem itself. MS. BRINK reported that Alaska is currently rated 37th in the country in the amount of juvenile crime, with only 13 states having less juvenile crime. However, we are second in the country in both how many juveniles we lock up and how long we lock them up for. MS. BRINK said there are still two sections of the bill that should be addressed. First, there is a portion of the bill that will treat children even more harshly than adults are treated by requiring them to serve time in cases where adults would not be required to. Second, MS. BRINK said the section that requires the automatic reversion to the adult sentence for a juvenile who violates parole is tougher than what is required of adult offenders who violate conditions of parole and are allowed to have that violation reviewed by a judge to determine the appropriate course of action. MS. BRINK noted that she appreciated having secure psychiatric facilities in state, but she was concerned with the due process procedure set out on page four. She specified the provision that allows a hearing only after 90 days and contains a standard lower than the regular "likely to be a danger to self/others." MS. BRINK believes if the system is to be set up to punish juveniles as adults, it should offer them the same protections as well. MS. BRINK also brought up a change to delinquency rule 10c in section 51, saying it allows the use of hearsay in a temporary detention hearing. MS. BRINK said this type of information is not generally admissible and she does not think it is a good idea to make this change. MS. BRINK urged the committee not to adopt the section that permits hearsay to be used in a temporary detention hearing. Number 514 SENATOR ELLIS asked where the language MS. BRINK referred to came from. MARGO KNUTH said it came from the criminal division of the Department of Law and is parallel to the process that allows hearsay to be used in a grand jury hearing. SENATOR PEARCE moved amendment #1 and without objection, it was so ordered. SENATOR PEARCE then moved CSHB 16(JUD) out of committee with individual recommendations. Without objection, it was so ordered.