Post by Logan on May 14, 2016 11:49:39 GMT -6
A landmark criminal justice reform bill will go to Gov. Bill Walker for his signature after the Alaska Senate on Friday agreed to changes made to the legislation by the House.
Senate Bill 91, sponsored by North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, aims to reduce Alaska’s rising prison population and save money from the state’s corrections budget — which consumed $280 million of the state’s $4.1 billion agency operating budget this year.
The bill’s comprehensive reforms to sentencing, bail, probation and parole practices are designed to keep nonviolent criminals out of jail and to generate better results from a state justice system that sees nearly two of every three inmates return to prison within three years of their release.
“We've got to break that cycle, and SB 91 is a paradigm shift that will help us do it,” Coghill said in a statement Friday.
The Senate’s concurrence vote Friday was 14 to 5. It drew support from the chamber’s four Democratic minority members and from 10 members of Coghill’s Republican-led majority; all five votes against concurrence came from Republican majority members. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, was absent.
Read more: www.adn.com/article/20160513/landmark-criminal-justice-bill-heads-gov-walkers-desk
Senate Bill 91, sponsored by North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, aims to reduce Alaska’s rising prison population and save money from the state’s corrections budget — which consumed $280 million of the state’s $4.1 billion agency operating budget this year.
The bill’s comprehensive reforms to sentencing, bail, probation and parole practices are designed to keep nonviolent criminals out of jail and to generate better results from a state justice system that sees nearly two of every three inmates return to prison within three years of their release.
“We've got to break that cycle, and SB 91 is a paradigm shift that will help us do it,” Coghill said in a statement Friday.
The Senate’s concurrence vote Friday was 14 to 5. It drew support from the chamber’s four Democratic minority members and from 10 members of Coghill’s Republican-led majority; all five votes against concurrence came from Republican majority members. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, was absent.
Read more: www.adn.com/article/20160513/landmark-criminal-justice-bill-heads-gov-walkers-desk