Shortly after Gov. Bill Walker signed SB 91, an extensive criminal justice reform bill, Juneau\u2019s Law Department got to work amending city code to meet the new state law\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big change in the way we address lower-level misdemeanor offenders,\u201d City Attorney Amy Mead told the Assembly during a special meeting Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The goal of the meeting, Mead said, was to help the Assembly understand how the state\u2019s criminal justice overhaul will impact the city. In many cases, though, SB 91 has raised more questions than Mead and her team of lawyers can answer.<\/p>\n
SB 91 doesn\u2019t allow municipalities to impose stricter punishments than the state for comparable offenses. Because the new law generally reduced maximum sentences for nonviolent offenders, this meant Juneau\u2019s city code needed to be reworked.<\/p>\n
[In Haven House ceremony, Walker signs sweeping reform of Alaska’s criminal justice system<\/a>]<\/p>\n For instance, the city had to lower the possible term of imprisonment for misdemeanor property crimes. Any larceny, concealment of merchandise, bad checks, or theft of less than $250 will no longer carry any term of imprisonment if it\u2019s the offenders first or second offense. A property crime of the same nature resulting in up $1,000 in damages will carry up to one year imprisonment. <\/p>\n The Assembly made changes to 19 sections of city code last week when it passed an ordinance amending city laws to conform with SB 91. That was the easy part though. What\u2019s tough, at least in Mead\u2019s view, is making sure that the city has the tools in place to prosecute crime in accordance with state law.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of questions yet to be answered,\u201d Mead told the Empire after the meeting Wednesday, and those questions revolve mainly around people committing nonviolent misdemeanors.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess I\u2019m old fashioned because I think the way to keep people from doing things over and over and over again is to separate them from society,\u201d Assembly member Debbie White said, voicing her discontent with the new state law that greatly reduced prison sentences in order to combat recidivism.<\/p>\n Drug addiction, according to White, is the driving force behind most property crime in Juneau, and she\u2019s worried that as long as thieves aren\u2019t put behind bars, larceny, theft and burglary will continue.<\/p>\n The point of SB 91, Mead explained, is to treat the underlying causes of crime rather than just the symptoms. If a person is stealing to support an alcohol or drug habit, an appropriate \u201calternative sentence\u201d \u2014 which the new state law recommends \u2014 would be to send the that person to a substance-abuse treatment facility.<\/p>\n The problem with this, for Juneau anyway, is that the city doesn\u2019t have any treatment facilities that could accommodate that kind of patient intake. Juneau\u2019s only alcohol and drug treatment facility \u2014 Rainforest Recovery Center\u2014 is a residential program, and it is not set up to accept walk-ins or last-minute referrals, which leaves the city \u201cin a little bit of a catch 22 at the moment,\u201d Mead told the Assembly.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re saying \u2018Don\u2019t send them to jail; that\u2019s not going to treat the underlying problem,\u2019 but we have very little resources to do that,\u201d she told the Empire after the meeting.<\/p>\n Juneau\u2019s lack of substance-abuse treatment facilities isn\u2019t the city\u2019s only problem when it comes to imposing SB 91\u2019s alternative sentences. The city\u2019s Law Department also has to figure out what other types of alternative sentences exist.<\/p>\n Take, for example, shoplifters. The state is requiring Juneau to come up with alternative sentences that will help make sure the shoplifters don\u2019t commit the same crime again.<\/p>\n What those sentences should be, however, are anybody\u2019s guess at this point. The state hasn\u2019t provided much direction, according to Mead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re tasked with coming up with alternative sentencing options, and I, off the top of my head, don\u2019t know what those look like,\u201d she told the Assembly, explaining that she and her staff are currently researching different types of alternative sentences that they may soon have to impose.<\/p>\n Juneau and Anchorage are the only municipalities in the state that prosecute their own misdemeanors. Other city\u2019s, like Fairbanks, let the District Attorney\u2019s Office handle them.<\/p>\n Juneau and Anchorage have more control over which cases they prosecute this way, and in many cases, they can allocate more resources to the prosecution of misdemeanors than the state can, Mead said. But this means that they will also face difficulties that other cities won\u2019t as they grapple with SB 91.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think everything will be smoothed out for a while,\u201d Mead said. \u201cThis is going to be an evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Correction: In an earlier version of this article, the Empire stated that “Any larceny, concealment of merchandise, bad checks, or theft of less than $1,000 will no longer carry any term of imprisonment if it\u2019s the offenders first or second offense.” That’s not true. If the property is worth more than $250 but less than $1,000, the offender could face up to one year imprisonment. <\/em><\/p>\n Read more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n Driver in fatal car crash sentenced to one year <\/a><\/p>\n Changes on the way for Juneau’s Ford dealership<\/a><\/p>\n Sonar cam helps locate fisherman’s body in Auke Bay<\/a><\/p>\n