Both sane and humane: Cecil Ash on sentencing reform.

This comes via David's Hope. Don't tell anyone, because he's a conservative Republican, but I adore this man for his political courage - look at the limbs he walks out on for the unpopular cause of justice in this state.

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From: Cecil Ash CAsh@azleg.gov

Subject: Sentencing Bills Legislative Newsletter from Cecil Ash - 2/11/11
Date: Friday, February 11, 2011, 5:22 PM

As we enter into the 6th week of this 50th Legislature, first regular session, there have been almost 1500 bills filed by the representatives and senators. This is an appropriate time to communicate to you what I have been working on.

As you know, last year I was appointed chair of the House Interim Committee on Sentencing Reform, and I had numerous meetings with prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, probation officers, and advocates for victims and inmates. As a result of these meetings, I planned to introduce some bills this session based on the recommendations of the stakeholders workgroup that was formed from that committee.

One of the things I learned is that prison is not only the most expensive option at reducing crime and lowering recidivism for low-level nonviolent offenders, but it is also the least effective option. In the research material brought to the interim committee, I discovered that the State of Washington has approximately the same population as Arizona , yet Washington has only 18,000 inmates while Arizona has over 40,000. Since Arizona spends about $22,800/yr per inmate ($949 million/yr), that raised the question for me: Are we wasting taxpayer money by incarcerating so many more people than Washington does? This question led me to try to ascertain why there is such a significant difference between two Western states with similar populations, and then, to look at our sentencing policies in Arizona .

I have seen cases where “required” sentencing statutes, while well-intentioned, have sometimes been too severe, and caused more of an injustice than justice. Many judges agree with me. I have come to believe we are incarcerating too many nondangerous people in our prisons who would do better on probation or home arrest than in prison. Many other states have already found this out. I invite you to look at some of the research supporting this on my website.

http://www.cecilash.com/Issues.html#Research/studies

Accordingly, I have introduced several pieces of legislation, including the following:

• HCR2025 A bill to grant authority to the Board of Executive Clemency to authorize pardons and clemencies. This would remove the final decision-making process from the political arena where political considerations may compete with the just merits of the case.
• HB2374 A bill to give discretion back to judges who have actually heard the facts of a case, and can impose a sentence which is proportionate to the seriousness of the offense, rather than arbitrary sentence terms imposed by the legislature.
• HB2648 A bill to allow inmates the incentive to earn early release credits for good behavior, for participation in education and treatment programs - all of which are a good indication of how they will perform when released. Currently, inmates must serve 85% of the imposed sentence. This bill would allow eligible individuals to serve 66% of their imposed sentence with the remaining 34% served under community supervision. Evidence from other states shows that this practice has a very high potential for a successful reentry.
• HB2664 A bill to establish a sentencing commission which can review the performance outcomes of various programs, study the statistical successes of local and national incarceration alternatives, and make non-binding recommendations to the legislature on how to get the best reentry outcomes for taxpayer dollars invested in the corrections system.
• HB2380 A bill to release elderly and infirm inmates to consenting family members on medical end-of-life issues that render the inmates incapable of aggression. This reduces the medical expense to the Department of Corrections, and allows the family to attend the final days/months of the inmate’s life.
• HB2378 A bill to equalize the playing field for those who were convicted before the statutes changed in 1973. This would allow anyone convicted of murder before 1973 to apply for parole on the same eligibility basis as those who have been convicted of murder since then. This would appliy to only 28 inmates, all of whom have served 35 years or more; but it does level the playing field for parole eligibility and would reduce the future medical expenses of the state.
  You can see more on these bills, and link to their respective webpages from http://www.cecilash.com/Bill_Watch.html

None of the foregoing bills will be considered unless they are first heard by the judiciary committee to which most of them have been assigned. http://bit.ly/eOppZt Committee chairs in the legislature have the discretion to hear or hold a bill. If the chair holds the bill it cannnot be heard and cannot move forward. Right now, none of these bills have been heard. The deadline for hearing bills in the House is next Friday, February 18, 2011.

I encourage those of you who have an interest seeing any of these bills move forward, to write your representatives, your senator, and any committee chair who may be holding bills, to express why you support the bill.

Your support of these matters is appreciated. Your questions or comments on any of these bills is also welcome.

Sincerely ,

Cecil Ash ,

Chair

Health & Human Services

AZ Legislative District 18

602-926-3160

cash@azleg.gov

Rewrite the laws of the land: Contact legislators on key bills.

This comes from some of our friends at David's Hope and the AZ Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

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Urgent Action Alert!!!


Speaker and President: Tell your Judiciary Chairs to do their jobs.


The Judiciary Committee hears most bills having to do with criminal justice issues. Committee chairs have the power to decide which bills will get a hearing in their committees and which ones won’t. Senator Gould, Chair of Senate Judiciary, has stated publicly that he refuses to allow any bills on sentencing reform or private prison oversight to be heard in his committee. The Chair of Judiciary in the House has also not scheduled these bills for hearings.


THIS FRIDAY, February 18, is the deadline for bills to have a hearing in their first committee. Any bills that haven’t been heard by the 18th are effectively dead. PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL TODAY!


The President of the Senate and Speaker of the House are effectively the committee chairs’ bosses. They have an obligation to keep their committee chairs in line. They needs to tell Sen. Gould and Rep. Farnsworth to do their jobs and give these bills a fair hearing.


Why these bills deserve a hearing:


1. Private prisons in Arizona need oversight

If the escapes from Kingman weren’t enough to prove this, there is a host of research data that shows that private prisons are less safe for staff, inmates, and surrounding communities.

Unlike our current public Department of Corrections, these corporations, as for-profit, private entities, have almost no accountability to the public. They are exempted from public scrutiny under Arizona's Open Records Act. Arizona for-profits are not even required to reveal what types of prisoners they may be importing or alert local law enforcement during escapes or riots.

Rep. Campbell and Sen. Lopez have each introduced several bills to place oversight and reporting requirements on private prisons in Arizona.


2. Millions of tax dollars are at stake in our criminal justice policies

The Arizona Auditor General reports that Arizona is set to add 6,500 private beds at an estimated cost of $640 million through 2017. This year, our corrections budget is over $1 billion, consuming 11% of the state general fund.

In the midst of a crippling budget crisis, as devastating cuts are continuing in the areas of health care and K-12 education, Arizona is poised to award more multi-million dollar contracts to these corporations with absolutely no guarantee that they save money or are safe for our communities.

3. Sentencing reform saves millions, improves public safety

Other states, which formerly had sentencing laws similar to those now in effect in Arizona, enacted sentencing reforms between 1999 and 2010. States saw reductions in prison populations while violent and other crime rates fell significantly. Annual savings in these states are estimated at as much as $80 million annually.

Rep. Ash has introduced several bills that would reduce prison populations and save millions of taxpayer dollars.

What YOU can do….

Contact Senator Pearce and Rep. Adams and ask them to tell their Judiciary Chairmen to give sentencing reform and private prison oversight bills a fair hearing.


Arizona Speaker of the House Kirk Adams

602.926.5495 ph, kadams@azleg.gov



Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce

602.926.5760ph, rpearce@azleg.gov



Be sure to cc the Judiciary Chairmen on your message:

Senator Ron Gould

602.926.4138, rgould@azleg.gov



Representative Eddie Farnsworth

602.926.5735, efarnsworth@azleg.gov



If you can blind copy us, we will have a better idea how effective this initiative is. If you receive responses, even boiler plate ones, please share those with us, if possible.



Thanks for all your continuing assistance. Together we can make a difference!

Youth Promise Act: Contact Congress!

 Upcoming Events

 

December 10: International Human Rights Day.
December 17: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (Tucson Memorial).
December 18: Sex Workers Outreach Project Protest at the AZ DOC in Phoenix.

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From the ACLU's Blog of Rights

Congress – Finally Getting Smart on Crime

Posted by Ian Thompson, Washington Legislative Office
Dec 2nd, 2009 at 3:16pm


Earlier this morning, the House Judiciary Committee, on a vote of 17-14, sent the Youth PROMISE Act onto the House of Representatives for a vote in the near future by the full chamber! It has taken several years of hard work and determined advocacy to get us to this important victory, which really marks a turning point in how Congress addresses issues of crime, youth violence and gang activity.

This legislation advances a new, forward-looking, “smart on crime” approach to confronting these issues by focusing resources on cost-effective, evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies rather than the usual mix of longer sentences and more prison beds. For example, rather than waiting until after a crime or violent act has occurred, the Youth PROMISE Act will empower communities to work in positive ways with at-risk young people. Additionally, the legislation was actually strengthened during today’s mark-up by ensuring that these prevention and intervention strategies also take girls into account, whose needs are often ignored by the justice system. The legislation’s focus on front-end prevention strategies will help to prevent both boys and girls from falling into a cycle of violence and incarceration.

As a testament to just how much support this type of approach is garnering in Congress, 232 bipartisan members are currently cosponsors of the legislation. For those Congress wonks out there, that’s over half of the entire House of Representatives (435). While it may seem like this bill is a legislative slam-dunk (it certainly should be), today’s vote, and the level of opposition from the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, shows that we cannot let up the pressure. Please continue to email and contact your members of Congress and let them know that you support policies like the Youth PROMISE Act that are smart on crime and good investments in our future.