House committee votes down Senate home-detention bill

Legislators on Thursday shot down a bill meant to alleviate prison overcrowding after prosecutors criticized the bill as unnecessary and subject to litigation.

The same set of lawmakers -- members of the House Judiciary Committee -- also pushed forward bills to curb fraudulent emails to elected officials as well as strengthen the state Freedom of Information Act.

Senate Bill 820 by Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, failed by a 9-6 vote to escape the committee after passing through the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate without a single no vote.

Lindsey's bill, one of many bills and appropriations filed this year to address state prison crowding, would have allowed judges to intervene in the sentencing of first-time convicted felons and allow them to serve their sentences under house arrest instead of behind bars.

Once convicted and sentenced by a jury, a first-time felon convicted of a nonviolent and nonsexual crime would be eligible to have a judge step in and change the convict's sentence to some form of house detention with the possibility of electronic monitoring by the Arkansas Department of Correction.

Rep. David Whitaker, D-Fayetteville, ran the bill Thursday and said that even if a convict is eligible, a judge has 15 criteria to use to deny the convict's house arrest, such as whether the defendant had a suspect character, whether the crime was the result of provocation and whether or not the conduct caused serious harm.

"This is difficult stuff," Whitaker said. "It's about changing the basic way we've done things forever. The truth is, there are [first-time, nonviolent offenders] in our prisons. They are not myths, but they are people who do not belong there."

Speaking on behalf of state prosecutors, the state's prosecutor coordinator Bob McMahan and the Sebastian County prosecutor, Daniel Shue, said that the 15 criteria were overly broad and the process by which they would be measured were left to speculation.

Whitaker said the criteria were left broad so a judge would have discretion.

McMahan said first-time felons who could be eligible for house arrest could be guilty of negligent homicide, trafficking of a person, or arson.

Shue argued that the idea that there are many first-time, nonviolent felons serving prison time is a myth and that a standard for prosecutors is to use lesser sentences, such as jail time followed by probation, to scare first-time offenders into normative behavior.

"Policy-wise, nobody but a fool would try to put a first-time offender in prison unless there is something else going on," he said. "[House arrest and monitoring] is already in our quiver. With probation you can do a number of things: fines ... house arrest is an option."

Using estimates from state prison officials, Whitaker said it costs about $13.8 million a year to incarcerate those who would be eligible. Through this bill, he said, that cost could be reduced to $5.3 million.

"We won't ever solve the problem of prison overcrowding ... if we keep doing things the way we have," Whitaker said. "This isn't the answer. It is an answer. It's a tool a court can use."

Though the committee failed to pass that bill, it pushed on two House bills, including a measure to strengthen the state's Freedom of Information law.

House Bill 1984, by Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, passed through after limited debate. Bell's bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor, which can result in a year in jail, for members of a public board or commission to "willfully" start an illegal executive session.

The committee also passed Senate Bill 509, by Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, which would allow civil suits against people who assume someone else's name or identity for the purpose of sending e-mails or other digital communications to lawmakers.

Clark told the committee about an experience in which he received dozens of e-mails from constituents asking him to change his position on a bill only to find out the e-mails were all sent by their employer.

"I certainly would like to send those people a message that we are paying attention. That we want e-mails from our constituents and not someone else," Clark said.

Both Bell's and Clark's legislation will go to the full House.

Metro on 03/27/2015

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