Senate Bill 91, one of the biggest changes to Alaska\u2019s criminal justice system in decades, was touted as using an evidence-based approach to emphasize treatment and diversion instead of prison.<\/p>\n
The core idea behind the bill was that prison terms for lesser offenses trap people in a cycle. If they go to jail, they can\u2019t keep a job. If they can\u2019t keep a job, they\u2019re more likely to turn to crime to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put them in jail, they\u2019re more likely to commit a crime in the future,\u201d said John Skidmore, head of the criminal division of the Alaska Department of Law.<\/p>\n
Now, lawmakers are discarding that system before it has even been fully implemented.<\/p>\n
The Alaska Senate Finance Committee is considering Senate Bills 54 and 55, which would increase prison terms for some of the crimes that SB 91 addressed.<\/p>\n
That approach will cost more money and won\u2019t reduce crime, experts warned the committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll both see a negative impact on the budget \u2026 but also reduced effectiveness in terms of reducing recidivism,\u201d said Quinlan Steiner, the state\u2019s public defender and a member of the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission.<\/p>\n
Corrections commissioner Dean Williams said Tuesday that if lawmakers roll back last year\u2019s criminal justice reform bill, the state will spend millions of dollars per year and may be forced to reopen a prison it closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy budget has been set with the expectation that there is going to be future contraction of the prison population,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIf we make these changes and we have enhancements in some of these sentences, I\u2019m looking for some dollars to come back into the system to keep the system a viable system and keep it a safe prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether the Department of Corrections might be forced to reopen the recently closed Palmer Correctional Center, Williams said, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Financial notes presented to the committee indicate the rollback could cost the state more than $4.3 million per year. That\u2019s almost 20 percent of the savings forecast when Senate Bill 91 passed the Legislature last year.<\/p>\n
The Criminal Justice Commission spent years in research and discussion before making 21 unanimous recommendations to the Legislature in 2015. Those recommendations were the heart of SB 91. SB 91 also promised to save $21.1 million per year and millions more in deferred costs.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a divided commission made recommendations to modify the bill. Lawmakers have incorporated some of those changes into SB 54 and SB 55, but they\u2019ve gone beyond those recommendations on a handful of controversial items.<\/p>\n
The biggest of those is a change to sentencing for Class C felonies, the least-severe felony category. Class C felonies represent 40 percent of all people jailed in Alaska.<\/p>\n
SB 91 imposed a suspended jail sentence for people convicted of a Class C felony for the first time. This year, the commission recommended changing that to an active jail sentence of 0-90 days, chosen by the judge. Lawmakers instead put an active sentencing range of 0-365 days into SB 54.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year of jail amounts to what is basically a rollback of the original policy,\u201d Steiner said, \u201cand what you\u2019re going to see from this is an increase in felony convictions and jail time without any associated increase in rehabilitation, necessarily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers are being driven by an outcry from their constituents, who \u2014 according to the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center \u2014 have seen a surge in violent crime since 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cCitizens are pretty upset,\u201d said Walt Monegan, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening now \u2026 does not appear to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Testifying during a public comment period Tuesday, Ron Flint of Nugget Alaskan Outfitters, said he\u2019s seen a surge in shoplifting since the passage of SB 91.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a sense that these criminals feel emboldened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Most of the other testifiers, however, urged lawmakers to stick to SB 91 and give it a chance.<\/p>\n
Speaking for the Alaska Federation of Natives, Nicole Borromeo said \u201cthe evidence is simply not there\u201d when it comes to the need for changes. AFN favors making no changes before 2021.<\/p>\n
Kara Nelson, director of Haven House in Juneau, asked lawmakers to keep SB 91 in place and said she has seen people turn their lives around at the halfway house she manages.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur public safety has definitely not been diminished because people are given opportunity to be parents and build communities together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or 419-7732. <\/b><\/p>\n
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