Criminal justice reform: Bright lights in dark places

In 25 years of part-time elected public policy offices, I've come up with a sadly accurate observation: Public policymakers never make the right decisions at the right time, and the implementation is always flawed. The few times they know what needs to be done, they virtually never get the support they need to finish at the optimal time. The coordination with the executive branch, whether the governor or the mayor, is virtually always flawed and far behind in providing the changes and resources required.

Thoughtful criminal justice reform done poorly

Anchorage's drug-fueled property crime wave started in 2015 and coincided with the past state and municipal administrations' budget-cutting that put the number of sworn officers in Anchorage lower than at any time in the previous decade. Our prosecutors and courts are so undermanned that 7,000 criminal cases were dismissed because there was not enough staff to bring them to trial. The staff to monitor suspected criminals on pretrial release was not hired until a year after new policies were implemented. Our drug and alcohol treatment capacity has been profoundly lacking for decades. The court system is woefully short of resources and was not able to update our bail schedules to match the changes in our policies for property and drug offenses. Our police officers and judges did not get the information they needed to utilize the policy changes wisely. Most of us probably cheered at not having higher taxes, but now we are reaping consequences that I, for one, did not foresee.

Hard-right policy leaders in places like "hang 'em high" Texas started looking at how to be wiser dealing with nonviolent crime nearly 15 years ago and did in-depth research. In general, they found that our prison populations fall into three categories: One-third did something stupid on a bad day and will probably never reoffend; one-third are badly damaged individuals with deeply ingrained criminal mindsets and will be unlikely to change; and then there is the final one-third in the middle, for whom there is a reasonable chance for meaningful reformation. The research found that for nonviolent offenders, long sentences did not result in less future crime, and substance abuse treatment was helpful for some 35 percent of offenders.

The Texas policy people chose to do three things: remove barriers for re-entry to society for those who are unlikely to reoffend, keep hardened criminals off the street for as long as possible, and offer treatment, training and rehabilitation for the middle one-third for whom rehabilitation is possible.

This concept in Texas had a record of more than a decade of significantly reducing crime and the rate of re-offense by previous offenders. Other jurisdictions have gone down similar paths, with general success. Some Alaska legislators started a similar process 10 years ago with restorative justice, removing stupid drug laws, return of victims' property, removing non-conviction arrest records from the internet, violent crime victim restitution, more treatment facilities and the implementation of the "controlled substance advisory board" that had been ignored by previous governors for 35 years.

I personally begged the past governor and Department of Law to take leadership of the justice reform project and they would not. The absurdity of leaving this to part-time legislators with limited criminal justice experience escaped them.

More recently, courageous and principled Sens. John Coghill and Johnny Ellis led the movement that started work on Alaska's much-needed move to a smarter and more effective approach to nonviolent crime. A very qualified task force was assembled and began working diligently.

The justice reform group met, researched, debated and produced a good first-step set of recommendations. That became the basis for the legislation Senate Bill 91, which became law in 2016. The bill increased sentences for homicide, instituted intense supervision of pretrial offenders and parolees, provided for restitution of victims before the termination of court jurisdiction and screened offenders for mental health and substance abuse issues.

Unfortunately, the governor and executive branch were not paying attention, and most of the changes that needed to be in place were not made. No additional treatment services were instituted, no additional parole supervision staff was hired, no additional prosecutors and staff were provided, no additional judges, magistrates or staff were provided, and front-line police officers were not informed about how to work with the changes in state law and how they could still arrest and charge first-time offenders.

In Anchorage, the poor implementation of SB 91 could not have happened at a worse time. We were not prepared for the opioid and meth epidemic and we were woefully short of cops, prosecutors, dispatch personnel and treatment capacity. This all happened two years after the opioid drug wave hit us, as it has so many other cities in the U.S. As the often insightful Assemblyman Eric Croft says, "We did it backwards."

On the street, shoplifters often stole several times before they went to trial for the first offense. The courts were overwhelmed with cases and no extra resources. The public defenders were unable to manage their caseloads. The parole supervisors were not yet hired and trained, police officers and judges were not trained to work with the changed statutes, and there were still not nearly enough treatment facilities available.

Things are getting better

SB 91 has been significantly modified in light of experience, and the late arrival of most of the infrastructure, manpower needed for implementation, and some very evident omissions and missteps. Senate Bill 54 and House Bill 312 have made, by my count, some 25 modifications to SB 91. Some of these include: jail time for first-time theft offenses, jail time for addicted offenders to facilitate treatment, removal of the loophole that made it difficult to prosecute some categories of sex trafficking, longer probation supervision for sex offenders, increased jail time for all theft offenses, access to previous out-of-state criminal records, making violation of release conditions a criminal offense, and elimination of mandatory release provisions.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Police Chief Justin Doll are on track to have 100 additional policemen on the streets. The state has dozens of new parole supervisors starting to function. The court system has finally revised the bail schedules. Our police and the FBI have busted several doctors who were making big money overprescribing opioids. Troopers, APD and the FBI have pulled off several major drug interdictions. The city is adding more staff to handle 911 calls. The busting of car thieves and recovery of vehicles is improving. More police officers are learning how to work with the law changes and take crooks off the street early in their careers. Our law enforcement personnel are now using more resources to chase down bad guys with outstanding warrants. Already, recidivism seems to be trending downward. The Department of Corrections, under Dean Williams, is reporting that pretrial repeat offenders have decreased from 47 percent to 8 percent. Much of the coordination and resource-building that should have happened three years ago is coming online. Be of good cheer; the fog is clearing on the horizon.

Can we have mercy and grace for the perpetrators?

The prophet Micah encouraged us to love mercy, do justly and walk humbly before our Creator. Jesus said imperfect people should not throw rocks and that those who have experienced the most forgiveness should be the most grateful.

I fit that last category pretty well. In my youth, I committed many property crimes, cheated people and took advantage of many. My crimes are 60 years behind me, but I am grateful for the opportunity of a new start. By the grace of God, I have experienced forgiveness and mercy from family, victims, friends and the statute of limitations. It seems only appropriate that I have compassion for others, as there but for the grace of God go I.

Fred Dyson is a member of the Anchorage Assembly and a former member of the Alaska Legislature.

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.