Courts,

1
Courts, Crime Community
2
OUR OBJECTIVES

• Courts
• Grant real independence to the 3rd branch
• Make judges more accountable
• Redefine criminal sanctions
• Combine probation and parole management
• Criminal Justice
• Bring crime investigation into the 21st century
• Put offenders to work while behind bars
• Reduce recidivism with post-release supervision
• Community
• Special help for victims of sex abuse, violence
• Inform public by opening criminal records

3
COURTSPROBLEMS

• Judiciary is bloated with wasteful patronage
  while critical needs not met
• Case loads down 5 (1996-2000)
• But per case costs up about 50
• Legislature exerts dangerous political control
  over the court system
• Over 175 individual line items micro-manage who
  does what, and who gets key clerk jobs
• The Chief Justice, a constitutional officer, has
  been stripped of administrative authority

4
COURTSPROBLEMS (continued)

• Some discretionary sentences create unacceptable
  community risk
• Public outrage, especially in child abuse and
  domestic violence cases
• Virtually impossible to remove judges who abuse
  their power

5
COURTSSOLUTIONS

• Consolidate judiciary spending into a single
  budget line item
• Guarantee equal treatment with Senate and House
• Give Chief Justice administrative oversight
• Unfettered hire-fire authority, including
  reallocation of staff between courts
• Change trial court life tenure to 10-year terms
• Automatic reappointment unless Governor objects
  and refers to Governors Council for review

6
COURTSSOLUTIONS (continued)

• Redefine criminal sanctions
• Expand probation supervision for offenders who
  are not incarcerated
• Require mandatory post-release supervision for
  those who are incarcerated
• Give prosecutors right (that defendants already
  have) to appeal sentences
• Enact rational sentencing guidelines
• Reinstate death penalty for heinous crimes
• Combine probation, parole and incarceration into
  a single managed system under EOPS

7
CRIMINAL JUSTICEPROBLEMS

• Crime lab bottleneck hurts prosecutions
• Prison fails to turn inmates into productive,
  working citizens
• 97 of all prisoners (20,000 per year) are
  eventually released
• 63 of released offenders charged with a felony
  or serious misdemeanor within 3 years
• Post-release supervision is woefully inadequate
• Over 50 of the most dangerous criminals receive
  no post-release supervision
• Ex-cons dumped outside prison gate are over 4
  times more likely to recidivate

8
CRIMINAL JUSTICESOLUTIONS

• Bring crime investigation into 21st century
• Eliminate DNA testing backlog
• End toxicology lab drug and blood testing delays
• Review adequacy of Office of Chief Medical
  Examiner
• Make prison work mandatory
• Provide structured environment with drug testing
• Link skill development to regional employment
  survey
• Mandate post-release supervision
• Actively manage re-entry process
• Link with public and private support
  infrastructure

9
CRIMINAL JUSTICESOLUTIONS (continued)

• Permanently incarcerate dangerous sexual
  predators
• Target key groups susceptible to reduced
  recidivism, potential savings of 75MM
• Fast-track civil commitments for most dangerous
• Link those with mental health problems or
  developmental disabilities to community services
  and monitoring
• Expand women-in-transition programs

10
COMMUNITYPROBLEMS

• After a decade of positive trends, crime rates
  and community fears are rising
• Highly vulnerable victims of domestic violence
  and sex abuse often neglected in a system
  oriented toward offenders
• Citizens bear the brunt of prison release risks
• Sex offender backlog (nearly 17,000) among worst
  in U.S.
• Violent teenagers enrolled in classes without
  teacher notification

11
COMMUNITYSOLUTIONS

• Special help for victims of domestic violence and
  sex abuse
• Designated victims/witness advocates to provide
  continuous police-through-trial/release support
• SANE and rapid DNA analysis available for all
  rape victims
• Where evidence exists of domestic violence,
  arrest must be made and prosecution pursued with
  or without victim participation
• Work to prevent new victims
• Prompt victim notification of offender status
• Domestic violence/healthy relationship awareness
  in schools and media
• Community policing funds linked to
  implementa-tion of best practices for drug and
  gang control

12
COMMUNITYSOLUTIONS (continued)

• Address sex registry backlog now
• Remove CORI restrictions on sex offense felonies
• Post sex offense convictions on internet
• Release critical juvenile records
• Schools alerted to serious violent behavior
• Invest in crime-fighting technology
• Reverse 911 and Amber Alerts
• Domestic violence call tracking software
• Link criminal justice information systems to
  share offender information

CORI - Criminal Offender Record Information