EDITOR'S COLUMN: Softening on a scapegoat

PALMER — Last summer’s implementation of SB91, followed by what’s perceived to be a sharp uptick in crime in the Valley, has made law and order a hot button issue here in the Mat-Su.

So when it was time for freshman legislator and former Palmer mayor DeLena Johnson to hold her first public event back in her district, there was little doubt about what the subject would be.

“Public safety and criminal justice reform is something I’ve heard a lot about in the Valley,” Johnson said, following Saturday afternoon’s three-hour town hall at the Palmer Senior Center. “Obviously everyone is concerned about the budget, but… this is affecting people right in their own homes and so there’s a lot of concern about it.”

A stellar panel, many of whom participated in another public safety town hall earlier in the day at the Menard Center in Wasilla, took complaints, concerns and suggestions from the crowd, which included a number of families of victims of violent crime, and former offenders.

Since the start of these town hall events, antipathy for SB91, which was meant to reduce the cost of incarcerating certain offenders, and implement a more holistic approach to crime, has waned. In the beginning, many were blaming the bill even for actions that took place before the law took effect.

Much of that came in the wake of the brutal December murder of Palmer teen David Grunwald, but as town halls like Saturday’s have gone on, attitudes toward SB91 have softened some. Anymore, SB91 is not such a scapegoat in need of replacing so much as it is an imperfect piece of legislation that needs a little tweaking.

Whether people are agreeing with the wisdom behind it, or are resigning themselves to the fact that you can’t drastically cut government budget, while at the same time adding police, court cases and prison space, remains to be seen.

“I do believe it’s an evolving discussion,” Johnson said. “I started out with the question of, ‘should we repeal it or repair it?’ There’s opinions on both sides of that. I don’t know if we completely answered that today, but I know we got a little closer. There’s new bills and amendments (SB54 and SB55), and we didn’t really talk about those; I hoped we would have talked about them.”

Armed with a thick paperback of Alaska case law, John Skidmore, the director of the criminal division of the Alaska Department of Law, gave defenses, explanations and clarifications to just about every question and assumption lobbed at the panel.

He said it’s way too early to make any sort of judgment about whether SB91 should be repealed.

“Any time you make changes to anything as large and complex as the criminal justice system, you’re going to have some growing pains as you implement them,” Skidmore said after the town hall. “It’s too early. The entire law hasn’t even been implemented. To really evaluate it you have to have enough time pass to be able to look at the patterns of crime rates and the things that are happening in the courts.”

Skidmore conceded that even without that long-term data, there are some loopholes in SB91 that need closing.

“For instance, Class C felonies where you can’t get jail time. There are certain times the appropriate sentence can’t be imposed. There, we’d taken too much discretion away from judges,” Skidmore said. “The same with fourth-degree theft. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that that needs to be tweaked a little bit.”

Skidmore said those remedies are found in SB54, currently being debated by the legislature, but within that bill, and it’s companion bill SB55, the relative number of those ‘repairs’ is quite low.

“People talk about 21 recommendations, but actually there were over 80 (within the sub-parts), and SB91 recommended 61 SB54 is talking about changes to five of them — 5 of 60 — that’s not repeal of the law, that’s a very small portion.”

Longtime Anchorage police chief Walt Monegan, an early proponent of SB91 was part of the panel. He said he’s seen the attitudes of the public change some.

“I think we, as a society, have grown to be a little impatient; we expect instant gratification,” he said. “There have been a few missteps, but ultimately, understanding that what we did before wasn’t correct, and this promises to be a better way… Initially a lot of people misunderstood what 91 was, and they ran with the earlier version. Change is tough for anybody, so I’m pleased with it.”

Skidmore said that even if SB91 is a scapegoat people are coming around to tolerate, if not appreciate the wisdom of, that doesn’t mean it should be loosened from criticism.

“I think a lot of folks blamed SB91 for things SB91 is not responsible for,” Skidmore said. “That having been said, people have things to complain about. Do I think it’s been turned into a scapegoat for some things? Yes. Do I think it’s deserving of criticism? Yes. Are those things we’re trying to work on? Also, Yes.”