'Three-Strikes' Defeated

The General Assembly on January 22-23 adopted tough changes to the criminal justice statutes, including creating a new crime of home invasion for entering an occupied home with a deadly weapon or instrument, or committing a felony crime during the illegal entry.

Those convicted of home invasion will incur a minimum 10 to 25 years in prison, and will not be eligible for parole until 85 percent of the term has been served.

Efforts to amend the bill to make a third felony conviction result in automatic life in prison without parole, as Governor Rell and Republican leaders had urged, were rejected along mostly party-line votes.

“The good news,” says ACLU-CT Lobbyist Betty Gallo, “is that they added [a] mental health diversion program. This will allow people with psychiatric disabilities who commit non-violent crimes to receive treatment rather than be incarcerated.” But she added there are more changes needed when the issue is taken up in regular session, and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) “is going to need more funds for the diversion to work.”

Key elements of the new law, as summarized by the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Research, are:

1. creates the new crime of home invasion and increases the penalty for burglary of a dwelling at night by making it 1st degree, instead of 2nd degree, burglary;

2. makes someone convicted of 2nd degree burglary or home invasion ineligible for parole until he or she has served at least 85% of the sentence imposed;

3. eliminates a factual finding currently required to trigger enhanced sentencing under state persistent offender laws;

4. alters the composition, qualification requirements, and appointment process for the Board of Pardons and Paroles (BOPP); requires a training program for board members and parole officers; prohibits parole hearings from being conducted unless the chairperson has certified that all pertinent information has been obtained or is unavailable; and requires the board to hire at least one psychologist;

5. eliminates the parole administrative review procedure;

6. updates the crime victim notification law; gives the paroles board discretion to permit family members of living victims to make statements at pardons and paroles board hearings; and directs the Judicial Branch to (a) implement an automated victim notification system that, among other things, can notify interested victims when the court is considering whether to accept a plea bargain and (b) assign two victim advocates to assist crime victims appearing at BOPP hearings;

7. limits the reasons that the Department of Correction (DOC) can grant an inmate a furlough;

8. increases the number of reentry, diversionary, and staff-secure sexual offender beds;

9. requires the Judicial Branch to post certain arrest warrant information on the Internet;

10. requires global positioning system (GPS) monitoring of 300 more parolees;

11. affords BOPP members and employees and certain DOC employees access to juvenile and youthful offender court records in limited circumstances;

12. requires judges to state reasons for imposing conditions on people arrested for certain serious crimes when they release them from custody;

13. establishes a committee to study ways to create incentives for towns that allow community-based offender programs to be located in them;

14. changes administrative driver's license suspension periods when the driver's elevated blood alcohol level is determined by evidence provided by a hospital;

15. moves the effective date of a new consumer reporting law from February 1, 2008 to May 1, 2008;

16. requires probationers who are the subject of arrest warrants or notices to appear to continue to comply with their release conditions;

17. increases the responsibilities of the Criminal Justice Policy Advisory Commission;

18. expands membership in the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) Governing Board, directs that body to hire an executive director and design and implement a state of the art information technology system, and appropriates $ 2. 25 million for these purposes;

19. creates a diversionary program for people with psychiatric disorders who have been accused of less serious crimes;

20. appropriates money for reentry and diversionary services in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven;

21. by January 1, 2009, directs DOC to provide the BOPP with a secure video connection at each correctional facility for conducting parole hearings by videoconference (§ 15); and

22. requires DOC, BOPP, and the Judicial Branch's Court Support Services Division (CSSD) to develop a risk assessment strategy for offenders in DOC custody.

To read the entire Bill Analysis, to go http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/BA/2007SB-01700-R00SS4-BA.htm

To read the “fiscal note” go to http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/FN/2007SB-01700-R00-FN.htm

To read the entire bill history go to http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=1700&which_year=2007&SUBMIT1.x=13&SUBMIT1.y=14&SUBMIT1=Normal

For more on the ACLU’s position, read Why we oppose '3 strikes'

Members Made A Difference

Letters from ACLU-CT members urging rejection of ″three-strikes-and-you’re out″ language helped keep that proposal out of the “Crime Justice” law adopted in special session in late January 2008.

All Republicans voted for the three-strikes that ACLU-CT opposed, joined by Democrats Joan Hartley (Waterbury), Tom Gaffey (Meriden) and Paul Doyle (Wethersfield) in the Senate; and in the House Tony Guerrera (Rocky Hill), Linda Gentile (Ansonia), Ted Graziani (Ellington), Corky Mazurak (Wolcott), Jim O'Rourke (Middletown), Gail Hamm (Durham), Jeff Berger (Waterbury) and Steve Mikutel (Griswold).

Executive Director Andrew Schneider and Lobbyist Betty Gallo, who were at the Capitol until the House adjourned at 3 a.m. Wednesday, say it clearly helped when legislators had heard from a hometown constituent.

″We need to encourage more of our members to sign up for and respond to our Email Activist Network alerts and updates,” he said. “It takes only three or four minutes to send a personalized message.”

ACLU-CT promises not to overwhelm participants with constant appeals. “Our goal is not much more than a half-dozen appeals in a legislative session,” says Don Noel, ACLU-CT chair. “We want you to write when it really counts.”

″You don’t need to know all your legislators’ names,″ Noel adds. “You tell us where you live, and the computer knows that. Although the onscreen form offers you the option of starting from scratch on your own letter, I find it much easier to begin from the first choice; it’s easy to amend or rewrite the standard language we offer.”

To join the Activist Network, click on JOIN in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. The sign-up check-off is two-thirds of the way down the page, at the bottom of the “Interest and Preferences” section.