I recently wrote to legislative leaders and urged them to keep the upcoming special session on criminal justice reforms brief and to the point. Subject matter for the special session should be limited to areas where there is broad agreement. Any initiatives with budget implications should be put off until the regular legislative session begins just two weeks later and a new budget is proposed.
My initial proposals — the ones that the Speaker of the House and others have said we have “95 percent consensus” on — do not have a budget impact.
For the special legislative session on crime later this month, I have proposed the following changes to the penal code:
• Tougher Home Invasion law — a home invasion will now carry a twenty-five year sentence of which ten years may not be reduced by the court; and at least 85 percent of the sentence must be served.
• Increased penalties for night-time burglaries and burglaries committed with a firearm — these crimes will now carry five-year mandatory minimum sentences.
• Tougher, tighter “persistent offender” law — to provide harsher penalties for so-called career criminals.
• And a workable “Three Strikes” law for repeat violent offenders — a person convicted of a third state or federal violent crime will receive a life sentence that is not subject to review until at least thirty years have been served.
I have also proposed that we take immediate steps to strengthen the Board of Pardons and Parole, and that we also provide victims with more rights.
I know these proposals alone will not finish the job – I am committed to offering additional improvements in my budget speech in February. Those will include re-entry programs, community-based treatment programs and increased funding for housing and jobs programs. These initiatives will all have a price tag. That is why I think it is important to do the things we can do right away.
Remember that the state does not have any room under the constitutional spending cap for Fiscal Year 2008. We cannot — and should not — risk the progress we have made on these vital public safety reforms by complicating them with budget issues that rightfully deserve longer consideration, including public hearings.
We need to restore confidence in our criminal justice system and peace of mind to our citizen. We should start right now — if ever an issue shouted “urgency,” it is this one.
