SB 91, known as the crime reform bill in the Alaska Legislature, is being reviewed by the Senate after passing out of the House last week by a vote of 28-11.
Senator Peter Micciche says he thinks the bill remains tough on crime but is a valuable attempt to decrease the state’s continually increasing prison populations.
Sen. Micciche (R-Soldotna): “This bill is about trying to help low level criminals to succeed, the reinvestment. Before they have that opportunity they are required to be risk assessed to ensure they are not a risk to their communities. And the most important thing is to remember that bad people will stay in prison.”
One big change to Alaska’s justice system through this reform bill would be that law enforcement officers will have the ability to merely cite Misdemeanor through Class C Felony offenders versus arresting them.
The idea behind rehabilitating low-risk, non-violent defendants stems from research that shows when those individuals are put into prison during the pre-trial process, it has a significant negative effect on their behavior.
Senator Micciche says the reform bill also aims to be more efficient in Alaskan courts’ pretrial processes, as well as addresses problems with technical violations, both areas that cost the state.
Sen. Micciche (R-Soldotna): “I told a story, an email I’ve gotten, I’ve gotten hundreds on this bill through the months. A young man was incarcerated, did his time, went to a halfway house, was trained, became very nicely employed on the North Slope, and then had a technical violation which means he missed a parole meeting and went back for six months. He lost his job on the slope, you and I are paying for that, how that makes sense is difficult for me to find any logic in.”
The senator reiterated that there is obviously a flaw in the system since Alaska’s prison population is forecast to increase by 27 percent in the next ten years, and this reform bill takes the first steps to diminish that growth.