Bills look to reform sentencing guidelines

HELENA — A dozen bills moving through the Montana Legislature would substantially reform the state’s criminal sentencing guidelines, with the intention of reducing overcrowding in jails and prisons while providing better addiction and mental-health treatment to offenders.

Sen. Cynthia Wolken, D-Missoula, took on the bulk of the legislation after her Republican partner on the reform package, former Sen. Kris Hansen of Havre, resigned before the session to take a job in the state auditor’s office.

The senators served respectively as chair and vice-chair of the Commission on Sentencing, established as a one-time interim committee by the 2015 Legislature.

“The last commission in 1996, a lot of reforms did not pass, so basically we haven’t looked comprehensively at the entire criminal justice system in over 20 years,” Wolken said in an interview Tuesday.

Wolken specifically pointed to long-term overcrowding in the Flathead County Detention Center as an example of where reforms are needed.

One of the bills, providing a licensing system for peer-support specialists, received a near-unanimous vote Tuesday by the Senate and will get a final vote today. Speaking on the Senate floor before the chamber’s preliminary vote, Wolken said her measure would give recognition to specialists who offer support-group treatment, as opposed to addiction counselors. Senate Bill 60 will get a final Senate vote today.

A slew of measures heard Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee promises to spark far more discussion, however. Lawmakers spent more than an hour debating Senate Bill 63, which would loosen up some of the penalties for probation and parole violations.

Wolken characterized the proposal as one that would help shut the “revolving door” that keeps non-violent offenders within the criminal justice system once they’ve been released on parole or probation.

“They end up in the system longer than they could have sat in prison for the same sentence they were charged with initially,” Wolken said.

Several opponents to the bill questioned where to draw the line between protecting public safety and giving offenders a second chance, however. Speaking on behalf of several groups including the Montana County Attorney’s Association and the Montana Police Protective Association, lobbyist Mark Murphy called it a “bad bill” that would fail to hold criminals accountable for their actions.

“I’m not sure we can fix this bill at this point,” he said. “If you can’t tell me how many cases are going to be impacted by it and how it will impact the public safety of your community, you can’t pass this bill.”

He also suggested the state had an under-supply of prison and jail space, rather than an overcrowding problem. Sen. Mary Moe, D-Great Falls, responded that the state’s high rate of recidivism for those released on parole proved the system is not working.

“We have a constitutional imperative to rehabilitate those we send to prison,” she said. “A lot of that recidivism rate is due to technical violations, not due to the violent crimes that you have indicated.”

The bill proposes several reforms, including prioritizing probation supervision for those recently released from prison. It would also reduce length of probation sentences and the amount of time that convicts who violate parole can be sent back to prison.

Wolken added that she would amend the bill to specifically exclude criminals convicted of violent or sexual crimes.

Committee Chairman Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, said after the committee hearing that he expects to see bipartisan support for the sentencing reform bills, but flagged Senate Bill 61, as an exception. It would set up a state-run licensing program for the seven inpatient treatment centers in Montana that provide drug and alcohol addiction treatment to criminals.

Wolken argued that a licensing program would ensure that the programs uphold best practices and increase accountability for taxpayer money spent on them. Republicans on the committee, however, questioned the wisdom of adding a new licensing program to the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Representing Alternatives Inc., a pre-release center in Billings that would be required to obtain a license, Murphy spoke in support of the bill.

“The idea is that with increased qualifications, the services will be better,” Murphy said. “It always adds to the cost … but the highest quality that we can provide is exactly what we want to provide.”

Other bills heard Tuesday included legislation intended to increase the availability and effectiveness of pre-trial risk assessments and replace the state’s all-volunteer Board of Pardons and Parole with three full-time board members.

Several bills share similar language, and while they could stand on their own individually, Wolken said the reforms will be stronger if they are all enacted into state law.

“If you pass a few here and there it will take kind of a crack at some of the issues we’re having, but because the criminal justice system is so complex … we really need to come at it with a multi-faceted approach to make a dent in the population issues we’re seeing and to really appreciate the cost-savings to counties and state taxpayers that we’re trying to achieve,” she said.

Four other bills recommended by the Sentencing Commission will be heard today by the Senate Judiciary Committee, with a vote on all nine measures expected midway through next week.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.