Alaska victims shortchanged by proposed crime bill

As one of Alaska’s leading victims’ rights organizations, Victims for Justice, or VFJ, was surprised to learn from news reporters that a state senator introduced legislation involving a major policy change that would seriously affect the lives of crime victims.

Sen. Bill 114, sponsored by Sen. Tom Begich, D-Anchorage, would allow juvenile offenders who are tried and sentenced as adults, regardless of the crime, to go before the parole board and ask for release from prison after 15 years of serving their sentences. This would apply retroactively to all juvenile offenders who have been tried and sentenced as adults under current law.

If their requests are turned down, they can plead their cases before the parole board every two years after that. Alaska law currently stipulates that offenders who were minors when they committed specified serious, violent crimes and were convicted and sentenced as adults are not eligible for discretionary parole until they serve a portion of their sentence, which may be longer than 15 years.

SB 114 is based on a recommendation of the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission, or ACJC. VFJ participates on multiple ACJC workgroups, including the ACJC Victim Services and Domestic Violence workgroups, yet this was never a point of conversation in these meetings.

It is clear that victims of these juvenile criminal offenders were an afterthought as Sen. Begich formulated his bill. SB 114, as initially proposed, not once mentioned victims and the impact these changes would have on them. According to the ACJC annual report, the workgroup that developed this recommendation only heard from stakeholders that would be in favor of this change. This is an all-too-common occurrence when criminal justice reform is discussed. Consistently, focus is placed on offenders’ rights, and victims’ rights are ignored. This devalues and retraumatizes victims.

VFJ takes no position on whether an individual inmate should be granted parole or not. That is not our role and is best left to members of the parole board. But as a statewide organization that serves victims, we would be remiss not to point out that this legislation will inflict pain and suffering on Alaskans whose lives have been turned upside down by homicides, armed robberies, aggravated assaults, sexual assaults, kidnapping and other acts of violent crime that fall under Class A felonies.

The senator told us that victims’ rights are not discounted by this bill and that victims can always testify before the parole board. Technically, that is correct. However, it is disingenuous not to recognize the re-traumatization that occurs every time they get that call, which could happen every two years. Trauma does not end with the crime or the trial, it continues long after. Frequent parole hearings are triggering and traumatic for victims.

This proposed law and the way it was unveiled is distressing and is completely insensitive to the tragedies many Alaskans have suffered. We can do better. We should do better.

If Sen. Begich wants to start a conversation about juvenile offenders sentenced as adults, he could propose an amendment to the existing statutes that authorizes minors to be treated and sentenced as adults. Such a law could be applied prospectively, not retroactively, so this change would not come as a shock to victims who have already gone through the process.

There is room to start over with this bill next session. Before it’s reintroduced, victims should be consulted broadly and publicly to gauge how such legislation would affect them. Far too often, we silo legislation, not considering all the stakeholders that would be affected simply because we assume they would be against it, or worse, we just forget them completely.

Victoria Shanklin is executive director of Victims for Justice, a nonprofit that stands up for victims of crime in Alaska.

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