April 25, 2008

TOUGHER CRIME BILL WILL INCREASE SENTENCES ON REPEAT OFFENDERS

State Representative Larry Butler (D-Waterbury) announces legislation that will double and triple jail sentences for repeat violent criminals and will also give criminal justice professionals $10 million in new funding for prosecutors, increased GPS tracking, state police, parolee supervision, parole officers, warrant service, alternative housing and other tools that frontline crime officials have said will strengthen the criminal justice system.

For criminals who are found to be "persistent dangerous felony offenders," the bill doubles the minimum and maximum penalties that they face upon a second serious felony conviction, and triples those penalties (up to life in prison) after a third serious felony conviction.

"This is an extraordinary improvement to our justice system," Rep. Butler said. "State prosecutor's have informed us of the tools they need to reach the goal of sending repeat offenders to prison for as long as possible. We took what they told us and put it into this legislation. Time and time again criminal justice experts and victim advocates have warned us that we cannot pass laws that simply sound good but don't work in practice. The experts have told us that this legislation will work."

"Dangerous felony" crimes generally include murder, manslaughter, arson, kidnapping, 1st and 2nd-degree robbery, 1st and 3rd degree sexual assault, 1st-degree assault, home invasion, 1st-degree burglary, 2nd-degree burglary with a firearm, or any attempt to commit those crimes. The range of jail sentences for the most serious of these crimes generally ranges from 10 years to life. Under the proposed new law, those sentences will be either doubled or tripled for repeat offenders.

The bill also provides $9,996,000 over the next year for a variety of law-enforcement tools, including:

• $681,000 to the Division of Criminal Justice for enhancing the prosecution of repeat offenders and administrative coordination and information technology capacity.
• $512,000 to the Public Defender Services Commission for enhancing the legal defense of indigent defendants and handling increased prosecutions.
• $5,232,000 to the Judicial Department from the General Fund for enhancing court operations and probation supervision of sexual offenders, including the use of GPS and polygraph technologies, and for increasing the capacity to serve outstanding warrants for violations of probation, providing truancy prevention and establishing a juvenile justice urban cities pilot program.
• $514,000 to the Department of Public Safety for hiring additional staff within the State Police Major Crime Squad.
• $2,147,000 to the Department of Correction for funding alternative housing, additional correction and parole officers, expansion of the use of global positioning system devices in the supervision of parolees, and additional staff for the Board of Pardons and Paroles to screen parole candidates and process files.
• $910,000 to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for enhancing coordination and monitoring of community services for individuals served by the alternative supervision and intervention support teams, providing supportive housing for individuals served in the jail diversion or reentry programs, enhancing the women's jail diversion program, and hiring an additional clinician to expand the capacity of the alternative drug intervention program.