A bill which strengthens Alaska’s restitution laws in criminal cases now head’s to the governor for his signature.
Senate Bill 5 would require criminals to provide compensation for loss of income to the victims, as well as the market value of stolen items.
Kenai Peninsula Senator Peter Micciche introduced that bill this session, citing 2014’s “rash of drug-related burglaries on the Kenai Peninsula and in the Mat-Su Borough.”
Last September Toni Dyer’s business was crippled by vandalism in Nikiski. She suffered not only the immediate cost of heavy equipment repairs, but the more long-term, silent damage of lost revenue…
Dyer: “They shut me down, this is our busy time of year, this is when we’re trying to get the wells done so we don’t have to do it when it’s cold, not good.”
The bill would close a gap in the system which was shown during a 2013 appeals court ruling which limited restitution to the actual damages, not lost income.
According to the Department of Public Safety’s annual report, Crime in Alaska 2013, Alaskans suffered over 23 million dollars in loss due to property crimes in 2013, up more than 12-percent from 2011.
