HB 52-COMPACT FOR ADULT OFFENDER SUPERVISION  CHAIRMAN TAYLOR announced the committee has held an extensive hearing on this bill. He then took testimony. MS. CANDACE BROWER, legislative liaison for the Department of Corrections, explained that the Interstate Compact governs the state-to-state transfer and/or travel and supervision of offenders. Currently, the Compact in place was enacted in 1937 and is outdated. The ability to transfer between states is much different now than it was in 1937, when 1,000 offenders crossed state lines. Now, one-quarter of a million offenders cross state lines each year. The current Compact promotes slow and unreliable exchange of case information and frequent violations of the Compact rules result in otherwise supervised offenders slipping through the cracks. MS. BROWER stated the new Compact creates oversight of offenders on a national basis. It creates a state council, of which the Compact administrator becomes a commissioner to the national commission. The national commission will be made up of one commissioner from each state. Each state gets one vote. The Interstate Commission will also have non-voting, ex-officio members who are interested parties that can contribute to the facility of the Compact. There will also be paid staff, including an executive director, and Interstate Commission staff who will oversee the day-to-day activities of the Compact, which Alaska does not currently have. Today, each state has a Compact administrator who participates in a formal body, but that body has no power to enforce compliance with the Compact so states can do what they wish. The executive director and staff would administer enforcement and compliance with the provisions of the Compact. They would enforce its bylaws and, as directed by the Commission, perform other duties as assigned. The new Compact will provide uniform procedures, a mechanism for acquiring and maintaining routine data and will provide a structure to adopt new rules and to guarantee or enforce compliance. It will also provide for adequate consideration of victims, more oversight at both the state and national levels, and a way to hold offenders more accountable. MS. BROWER pointed out that committee packets contain a map of the states that have enacted the Compact at this time: 31 as of today. That number is expected to increase to 35 by June. One reason it is so important that the Alaska Legislature pass this legislation this year is that the first 35 states to enact it will be at the table to set the rules and decide how the Compact will be operated. Alaska's population is small, therefore it is important that it protect its interests. In addition, Alaska exports more offenders than it imports so it will benefit from belonging to the Compact. She pointed out she revised the fiscal note after consulting with some of the folks working on the Compact. The fees are not expected to be initiated until July of 2003 so there will be no fiscal impact until FY 04. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if the amount is $16,000. MS. BROWER said that is correct for FY 04. The amount for FY 03 will be zero. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR took public testimony. MR. RICHARD MASTERS, Special Counsel, Council of State Governments (CSG), said he echoes Ms. Brower's comments. The CSG has been involved in the Compact bill for a long time and assisted in the original draft in 1937. The proposed legislation is the result of a year-long study in which Compact administrators under the existing mechanism came together with representatives from the legislative branch, attorneys general offices and decided the existing mechanism is not working as it depends almost entirely on cooperation. It is simply not designed to function in an environment where an offender can move from one part of the country to another in a matter of hours. In addition to the 50,000 known offenders who are under supervision, there are a large number of offenders whose whereabouts are unknown. HB 296 is an attempt to update the 63-year old law to make it effective by giving authority to states to make sure that compliance is achieved. MR. MASTERS pointed out that the threshold for creation of the commission that would allow the rule making to begin is 35 states. Currently 31 states have enacted legislation and two states have legislation waiting to be signed by their governors. Eight other states have passed legislation through one chamber. The CSG hopes Alaska will be present at the table when the rules are reconsidered and adopted to enforce this important public policy mechanism. MR. WILLIAM CRAIG, speaking on his own behalf, informed members he is a former police officer and noted the bill addresses victims' rights but it does not cover witnesses or past members of the criminal justice system who may have concerns about an individual. He said he does not worry about most of the people he encountered throughout his brief career, but he would like to know the status of a few people. He is aware of prosecutors and witnesses in the same situation. He hoped, if Alaska does join the Compact, that issue is addressed. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR noted that Linda Zaugg, Department of Corrections, was available to answer questions. He then continued taking public testimony. MS. PAT TUTHILL, testifying via teleconference, told members the following story of her daughter Peyton Tuthill and her very preventable murder. After Peyton graduated from college in South Carolina, she went to the mountains of Wyoming for a survival course camping trip for four weeks. Peyton gave back to the community through her involvement with the American Cancer Society, working as an advocate for the elderly, and then moved to Denver to attend graduate school. After six months in Denver, she entered her apartment at noon to let her dog out. She encountered a man over 300 pounds who brutally tortured, raped and killed her. The offender, Donta Page, had recently been transferred and released from prison in Maryland and traveled to Denver where he was to be under three years of supervised probation in a halfway house. He was lost in the system. No one knew he was there. He was removed from his program for hostile behavior and was to be given a bus ticket to return to prison in Maryland. However, the current Compact was blatantly ignored. The current Compact does not have the technology, database or uniformity to notify and keep track of these prisoners. So, instead of waiting for the bus ticket, he broke into Peyton's apartment where she met her tragic and violent death. MS. TUTHILL said the 1937 Compact was enacted when there were only 1,000 offenders moving across state lines. Over 250,000 offenders are now moving across state lines. Ms. Tuthill stated, "Peyton should have never died like this. No one should ever have to die like this. This new Compact, with provisions and the witness/victim involvement in the new Compact is going to prevent such tragic deaths. And I have to make a decision every day if I'm going to live or die. And I feel like I'm Peyton's voice now, the voice of other victims. And I live this legislation everyday in the hope that it will be passed because I know what it will do. And I hear words from Peyton everyday and her favorite passage was, when we act from our hearts, speak from our hearts, we're standing in our full strength, for our heart is a place of courage, honor, integrity, wisdom, and passion." She asked committee members to support HB 52. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR expressed sympathy to Ms. Tuthill for the tragic loss of her daughter and then asked Mr. Humphries to testify. MR. KERMIT HUMPHRIES, National Institute of Corrections (NIC), said one of his responsibilities at the NIC has been the development and passage of this Interstate Compact. As a former probation/parole officer in Alaska for eight years, he noticed that in all of those years, only one state, on one occasion, returned an offender who had come to Alaska on interstate supervision and violated that arrangement. Many times, the Department of Corrections would do the paperwork, but other states would terminate jurisdiction for the offender so that the offender would stay in Alaska, or they would issue an in-state warrant. In that case, only residents of that state are protected. In only one case that he supervised was there an extradition back to the sending state. He could not recall any other officers who ever had anyone returned. He said Alaska is particularly vulnerable to the lack of enforcement on the existing Compact. The new Compact was drafted because department of corrections' spokesmen from all around the country came to the NIC saying the existing compact was broken and posed a danger to public safety. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR noted with no further testimony or questions, he would entertain a motion to move the bill. SENATOR COWDERY moved HB 52am from committee with individual recommendations and its accompanying fiscal note of $16,000. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR announced that without objection, the motion carried.