February 7: Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Update and Preview
On Thursday, February 7th, the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Commitee had an executive session where we discussed and voted on several of the bills that have had public hearings before the committee over the past few weeks.
Bottom line on top: these bills did NOT include HB-481-FN, which would legalize and regulate cannabis in New Hampshire. At over 30 pages and with LOTS of public input to consider from Tuesday’s public hearing, we’ll like be conducting at least one more work session before voting on a recommendation on the bill.
Here are some of the bills where we did make decisions and recommendations. (Full disclosure: In each case, I voted with the majority.)
HB-201 was retained for further study by an 11-7 vote, which means a subcommittee will do some additional homework to evaluate the effectiveness of the current law. The bill would make it a Class A felony to pay or to offer to pay for sex with someone younger than 18, and would increase the potential penalty from 3½ to seven years to up to 15 years. Because the law was only recently changed to elevate this crime to a Class B felony—and no data was available on how well or poorly this change is working to reduce this crime—a majority of commitee members felt it made sense to slow down. This decision means the bill will come up for consideration again in this session. Stay tuned. More.
HB-486 was approved as Ought to Pass with Amendment by an 18-2 vote. This bill requires parole officers to educate parolees on their voting rights and provide written notice of their ability to vote. Over the course of the public hearing, it became apparent that many released prisoners don’t understand that with the exception of convictions for treason, bribery, or willful violation of election laws, their voting rights are restored once they’ve been paroled. This bills ensures that people who have served their time understand that they are able to rejoin society as members of the voting public without stigma.
HB-491 was approved as Ought to Pass with Amendment by a 19-1 margin. This bill allows police officers to stop individuals they suspect may have committed or are about to commit a crime. It also allows them to ask for the person’s name or address. But it doesn’t allow officers to arrest them solely on the basis of refusing to provide this information. An arrest can only take place if the officer has probable cause that a crime has been committed.
HB-732 was retained for further study. This bill attempts to address racial profiling and over-sentencing of minorities in New Hampshire. As written, it would require the Department of Safety to collect data correlating the race of each convicted prisoner to average sentence length for people of all races committing the same crime. If a racial disparity was detected, the Department of Corrections would be required to “normalize” (reduce) the sentences of the affected group until each sentence is equivalent to the average length. While the intent of the bill was positively received, it definitely needed more work. I’ll be chairing a subcommittee that will make further recommendations.
HB-518 was unanimously recommended as Ought to Pass by a 20-0 vote. This vote would repeal a law allowing the Department of Corrections to sue released prisoners for the cost of their care while incarcerated. During testimony we learned that this law has been selectively applied to only two prisoners. We were unanimous in our opinion that people with criminal records have enough working against them without adding a punitive charge after they are released that they may need to commit another crime to pay.
Coming Up
February 12: Public hearing on HB-726 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 204 of the Legislative Office Building. This bill would change the name of the secure psychiatric unit to the New Hampshire secure psychiatric hospital and transfer it to the department of health and human services. It also requires the commissioner of the department of health and human to oversee the development of plans and construction of a new secure multi-purpose forensic psychiatric hospital—and makes an appropriation.
February 13: Public hearings on HB-109 and HB-514 will take place in Representatives Hall starting at 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. respectively. These bills would require universal background checks for most firearms purchases and a 7 day waiting period for certain firearms and ammunition purchases.
February 14: The full House will be in session in Representatives Hall and voting on bills.