Smart-on-crime sentencing reforms about to become law in Alaska

A number of helpful readers have made sure I did not miss news of significant criminal justice reforms making their way through the Alaska legislature, and this recent Alaska Dispatch News piece briefly summarizes what is about to become law:

A landmark criminal justice reform bill will go to Gov. Bill Walker for his signature after the Alaska Senate on Friday agreed to changes made to the legislation by the House. Senate Bill 91, sponsored by North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, aims to reduce Alaska’s rising prison population and save money from the state’s corrections budget — which consumed $280 million of the state’s $4.1 billion agency operating budget this year.

The bill’s comprehensive reforms to sentencing, bail, probation and parole practices are designed to keep nonviolent criminals out of jail and to generate better results from a state justice system that sees nearly two of every three inmates return to prison within three years of their release. “We've got to break that cycle, and SB 91 is a paradigm shift that will help us do it,” Coghill said in a statement Friday.

The Senate’s concurrence vote Friday was 14 to 5. It drew support from the chamber’s four Democratic minority members and from 10 members of Coghill’s Republican-led majority; all five votes against concurrence came from Republican majority members. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, was absent.

The legislation was drafted with the help of a newly convened Alaska Criminal Justice Commission, which includes members with experience in the state court system, law enforcement, public defense, mental health and victims' rights. The commission’s work was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which also spent $120,000 this year on a Juneau lobbyist, Kent Dawson....

In a prepared statement, Walker, who endorsed the criminal justice reform effort last year, thanked lawmakers for passing SB 91. He said his administration would review the bill’s technical elements “to make sure the policies can be applied as the Legislature has intended.”

“Alaska has some of the highest recidivism rates in the nation, so I am pleased to see our state’s elected officials taking action to address this problem while considering the balance between accountability, public safety, and achieving better outcomes from our criminal justice system,” the statement quoted Walker as saying.