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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - Update on proposed sentencing revisions

The Indiana Economic Digest on Oct. 12 reprinted a story from the Wabash Plain Dealer on the status of the "state-appointed panel [that] is trying to decide whether inmates convicted of Class D felonies should remain in the Indiana Department of Correction or be sent to county jails in Indiana." The story quotes from the minutes of the Oct. 4th meeting of the Criminal Code Evaluation Commission, which led me to take a look at the Commission's webpage.

There is a wealth of information on the site, included the archived webcasts of the past five meetings and the minutes of the past six meetings. The seventh meeting of the Criminal Code Evaluation Commission will be held on October 19, 2011.

Here are some interesting quotes from the Oct. 4th meeting minutes:

Andrew Hedges, Senior Staff Attorney with Legislative Services Agency, told the Commission members that the purpose of this effort is to move all definitions of crimes used in IC 35 to a newly created IC 35-31.5-2. He noted all definitions in the criminal code are not in IC 35-41-1.

As proposed, all definitions will be included in this new article and chapter. Mr. Hedges indicated that the current draft is almost 100 pages. He noted that the new format for bill drafts is to include in the repealed sections the entire text of each section with a strikeout through the text.

Well that is a significant change in bill drafting technique; don't know if it is good or bad! More:
He noted that many of the criminal penalties for violating sections in Titles 4 and 5 are difficult to find. Consequently, the Commission members considered grouping all of these references in one section of Title 35 for easier reference.

Exhibit A shows these references. Mr. Hedges noted that none of these criminal provisions were moved to Title 35 since they are all generally a part of the scheme that deals with regulatory statutes. As an example, Mr. Hedges cited IC 4-4-27, which governs the inspection of grain moisture testing equipment. The criminal provisions are in the final section of this chapter.

ILB: Moving sections around does not seem to be getting at the problem. Additionally, taking the penalties out of the specific laws and moving them to another title will only make it harder for the user to tie them together without access to an annotated (i.e. West or Burns) version of the statutes.

At the bottom of p. 2 begins the discussion of a significant issue, the validity of the offender data, a "new issue" raised a few months ago. It is worth a read and begins:

Representative Foley told the Commission members that concerns had been raised about offender data used during the prior legislative session to estimate the effect that sentencing changes would have on future prison populations. Consequently, a Data Analysis Working Group was formed to ensure that decision makers have valid and reliable information on population produced from sound methodology.
Also of significant import is this:
Research Group: Deborah Daniels presented to the Commission members two tables (see Exhibit C). One table shows the current scheme for sex crimes by felony level. The other table shows an alternative scheme based on proportional penalties that could be applied based on the severity of the crime. Under current law, sex crimes can be one of four felonies with sometimes wide ranges of incarceration between felony levels. In the alternative scheme, the sex crimes are divided into six different levels with presumably narrower ranges of incarceration. Ms. Daniels told the Commission members that the Research Group did not assign specific terms of incarceration for each level.
Exhibit C is included in the last 2 pages of the minutes.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 13, 2011 09:59 AM
Posted to Indiana Government