House Committee on Judiciary (04/15/2010)

Final
STAFF SUMMARY OF MEETING

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

Date:	04/15/2010	ATTENDANCE

Time:	01:40 PM to 03:20 PM	Court	X
		Gardner B.	X
Place:	HCR 0107	Kagan	X
		King S.	*
This Meeting was called to order by		Miklosi	X
	Representative Levy	Nikkel	X
		Pace	X
This Report was prepared by		Ryden	X
	Jessika Shipley	Waller	X
		McCann	X
		Levy	X
		X = Present, E = Excused, A = Absent, * = Present after roll call

Bills Addressed:		Action Taken:
HB10-1373 HB10-1374 SB10-159		Amended, Referred to the Committee of the Whole Amended, Referred to Appropriations Amended, Referred to the Committee of the Whole

01:40 PM -- House Bill 10-1373

Representative T. Carroll, prime sponsor, presented House BIll 10-1373 concerning changes to sentencing provisions for escape crimes. Under current law, if an offender knowingly commits an escape crime while in custody or confinement following a felony conviction, the court is required to impose a sentence for the escape crime that runs consecutively with any other sentences being served by the offender. This bill, with prepared amendment L.001(Attachment A), addresses individuals who escape, attempt to escape, or aid the escape of another while serving a direct sentence to community corrections or after being placed in an intensive supervision parole program. The mandatory sentence for the escape crime may run either consecutively or concurrently with any other sentence being served by the offender, at the discretion of the court.

01:44 PM -- Ted Tow, Colorado District Attorneys' Council (CDAC), testified in support of the bill. Mr. Tow noted that the bill is a recommendation from the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ). He explained the structure of the bill and talked about circumstances under which an individual might be sentenced consecutively. He responded to questions from the committee about sentencing for escape crimes. The committee discussed different sentencing schemes for inmates with different statuses.

01:59 PM -- Doug Wilson, Colorado State Public Defender, testified in support of the bill. Mr. Wilson is a member of the CCJJ and he was the chair of the task force that developed the bill. He indicated that the bill represents a compromise on the issue of how to handle certain escape offenders.

02:01 PM -- Peg Ackerman, County Sheriffs of Colorado, testified in support of the bill.


BILL:	HB10-1373
TIME:	02:02:47 PM
MOVED:	Court
MOTION:	Adopt prepared amendment L.001 (Attachment A). The amendment strikes everything below the enacting clause. The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:	Miklosi
		VOTE
	Court
	Gardner B.
	Kagan
	King S.
	Miklosi
	Nikkel
	Pace
	Ryden
	Waller
	McCann
	Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection


BILL:	HB10-1373
TIME:	02:03:11 PM
MOVED:	Court
MOTION:	Refer House Bill 10-1373, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. The motion passed on a vote of 11-0.
SECONDED:	Nikkel
		VOTE
	Court	Yes
	Gardner B.	Yes
	Kagan	Yes
	King S.	Yes
	Miklosi	Yes
	Nikkel	Yes
	Pace	Yes
	Ryden	Yes
	Waller	Yes
	McCann	Yes
	Levy	Yes
Final YES: 11 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS

02:05 PM

Representative Levy recessed the committee.

02:10 PM -- House Bill 10-1374

Representative Levy called the committee back to order.

02:11 PM

Representative Ferrandino, prime sponsor, presented House Bill 10-1374 concerning parole. This bill directs the Sex Offender Management Board (in consultation with the Department of Corrections (DOC), the Judicial Branch, the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) in the Department of Public Safety, and the State Board of Parole) to develop specific sex offender release guidelines for use by the State Board of Parole in determining when to release a sex offender on parole. The DCJ and the parole board are directed to develop an administrative release guideline for use by the board in evaluating all applications for parole. The guidelines are to include release recommendations for each risk category of offender. The DOC and the parole board are directed to develop administrative revocation guidelines for use by the board in making decisions about parole revocation. Training will be provided on the use of the administrative release and administrative revocation guidelines.

The bill also repeals the statutory provision that requires a parole officer to arrest a parolee if he or she does not have lawful permission to be in a particular place (e.g., a county other than the one to which the individual was paroled).

Up to 12 days of earned time each month may be deducted from an offender's sentence provided he or she:

• is serving a sentence for a class 4, class 5, or class 6 felony;
• has not incurred a class I code of penal discipline violation within the 24 months immediately preceding the time of crediting or during his or her entire period of incarceration if such period is less than 24 months;
• has not incurred a class II code of penal discipline violation within the 12 months immediately preceding the time of crediting or during his or her entire period of incarceration if such period is less than 12 months;
• is program compliant; and
• was not convicted of certain specified felony offenses (four new offenses have been added to the existing list of disqualifying crimes).

The current parole guideline statute is repealed and reenacted with changes. A statement of legislative intent is added. The DCJ is required to develop a risk assessment scale for use by the parole board that includes criteria shown to be good predictors of the risk of recidivism. The DCJ, the DOC, and the parole board are required to develop parole board action forms that provide the rationale for decisions made by the board. The parole board is required to use the risk assessment scale and the administrative guidelines, and to consider a new set of factors when making decision about parole releases. The board is also required to use the administrative revocation guidelines and consider a new set of factors when making decisions about parole revocations.

Representative Ferrandino distributed prepared amendment L.001 (Attachment B) and responded to questions from the committee about the reasons he had certain provisions included in the bill.

02:16 PM -- Michael Dell, Colorado Cure, spoke in support of the bill. Mr. Dell expressed his opinion that the parole board does not have adequate oversight. He recommended that the parole board be required to annually brief the Joint Judiciary Committee.

02:20 PM -- Tamar Wilson, CDAC, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Wilson spoke about the need for transparency with regard to parole board decisions. She responded to questions from the committee.

02:22 PM -- Peg Ackerman, County Sheriffs of Colorado, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Ackerman particularly supports the development and use of risk assessments.

02:23 PM -- Christie Donner, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and David Kaplan, CCJJ, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Donner and Mr. Kaplan co-chaired a CCJJ task force on post-incarceration supervision. Mr. Kaplan commented about the process of drafting the bill. He listed the names of the task force members. Ms. Donner stated that the goal of the legislation is to promote greater confidence in the competency of parole board decisions. She talked about various factors the task force studied. She distributed a document entitled "Colorado Parole Board Release Guideline Instrument" (Attachment C). Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Donner responded to committee questions.


BILL:	HB10-1374
TIME:	02:51:41 PM
MOVED:	Court
MOTION:	Adopt prepared amendment L.001 (Attachment B). The amendment makes a technical correction to a drafting error. The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:	Levy
		VOTE
	Court
	Gardner B.
	Kagan
	King S.
	Miklosi
	Nikkel
	Pace
	Ryden
	Waller
	McCann
	Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection


BILL:	HB10-1374
TIME:	02:52:25 PM
MOVED:	McCann
MOTION:	Refer House Bill 10-1374, as amended, to the Committee on Appropriations with a favorable recommendation. The motion passed on a vote of 11-0.
SECONDED:	Court
		VOTE
	Court	Yes
	Gardner B.	Yes
	Kagan	Yes
	King S.	Yes
	Miklosi	Yes
	Nikkel	Yes
	Pace	Yes
	Ryden	Yes
	Waller	Yes
	McCann	Yes
	Levy	Yes
Final YES: 11 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS

02:53 PM -- Senate Bill 10-159

Representative Miklosi, sponsor, presented Senate Bill 10-159 concerning defendants' statements at a community corrections hearing. Current law permits a victim to submit a written victim impact statement to a community corrections board that is considering an offender's referral to a community corrections facility. Victims are also allowed to make a separate oral statement to the board. Prepared amendment L.002 (Attachment D) addresses statements from the offender. Community corrections boards are required to allow offenders, who are under consideration for transitional placement into a community corrections facility, to submit a written statement concerning the offender's transition plan, community support, and the appropriateness of placement in a community corrections program. A board may also choose to allow an offender to designate a person to submit a written statement or give an oral statement on the offender's behalf at a hearing concerning the placement of the offender.

If an offender chooses to submit a written statement, he or she must do so within the timeframe and procedures established by the Department of Corrections (DOC). The DOC will then include such a statement with the offender's referral packet to the relevant community corrections board. The DOC is not required to provide notice of a community corrections board hearing to anyone except a registered victim.

Community corrections boards are required to develop written policies and procedures that will be made available to the public concerning the parameters for written and oral statements by victims, as well as the permissibility and parameters for a written or oral statement by a person designated by an offender. Neither the community corrections boards nor the DOC is required to provide transportation or make arrangements for the appearance of an offender (or person designated by the offender to speak on his or behalf) at a community corrections hearing.

Representative Miklosi responded to questions from the committee.

03:02 PM -- Christie Donner, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Donner discussed the work that went into amending the bill to remove the fiscal impact to the DOC, which was based on the idea that the department would be required to keep offenders in prison longer in order to facilitate statements at community corrections board hearings. By changing the wording in the bill to refer to written rather than oral statements, the DOC decided that the legislation could be implemented using existing resources.

03:11 PM -- Maureen Cain, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Cain provided some background information about the bill.

03:13 PM -- Dianne Tramutola Lawson, Colorado Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Lawson discussed the bill from the perspective of the community corrections boards.

03:14 PM -- Alison Morgan, DOC, spoke in support of the bill. Ms. Morgan expressed support for amendment L.002.

03:17 PM

Representative Levy recessed the committee briefly.

03:19 PM

Representative Levy brought the committee back to order.


BILL:	SB10-159
TIME:	03:19:23 PM
MOVED:	Miklosi
MOTION:	Adopt prepared amendment L.002 (Attachment D). The amendment strikes everything below the enacting clause. The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:	Court
		VOTE
	Court
	Gardner B.
	Kagan
	King S.
	Miklosi
	Nikkel
	Pace
	Ryden
	Waller
	McCann
	Levy
Not Final YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection


BILL:	SB10-159
TIME:	03:19:38 PM
MOVED:	Miklosi
MOTION:	Refer Senate Bill 10-159, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. The motion passed on a vote of 11-0.
SECONDED:	King S.
		VOTE
	Court	Yes
	Gardner B.	Yes
	Kagan	Yes
	King S.	Yes
	Miklosi	Yes
	Nikkel	Yes
	Pace	Yes
	Ryden	Yes
	Waller	Yes
	McCann	Yes
	Levy	Yes
Final YES: 11 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS

03:20 PM

Representative Levy adjourned the committee.