The Anniston Star
Brian Lyman
January 18, 2006

MONTGOMERY Despite vocal opposition from some legislators, the state House on Tuesday passed nearly all the bills in a package designed to revamp Alabama’s sentencing standards.

Eight of the nine bills, covering a wide variety of subjects from voluntary sentencing guidelines to adjusting definitions of property crimes, passed by comfortable margins.

The ninth, which would increase room and board wage deductions for those in community residential facilities from 25 percent to 45 percent, was tabled until Thursday.

Most of the package passed the state House last year but did not make it out of the Senate. Still, many legislators argued that the package did not address prison overcrowding and sentencing disparities, their major concerns.

Two bills drew a great deal of criticism: One that would raise fines for felonies and misdemeanors and another that would allow judges in DUI cases to take DUI convictions in other states into account during sentencing.

State Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, said the bills were more punitive than rehabilitative and did not go far enough in tackling prison overcrowding or disparities in sentences for the same offense.

“My point is, if you’re not going to do what you said you would do, if you’re going to lock them up and throw away the key, they don’t need to set up a blue-ribbon commission,” he said after the vote. “We have plenty of politicians in a re-election year who are willing to do that.”

Lynda Flynt, executive director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, said after the House vote that the commission’s mission was to address all aspects of Alabama’s criminal justice procedure, not just overcrowding, and that a bill providing voluntary sentencing standards would address many of the legislators’ concerns over the matter.

“(Judges) can recommend nonviolent offenders can be punished with community corrections, and other means not related to prison,” she said. “In that respect, yes, they will decrease the prison population or help reduce it.”

Judges have followed Virginia’s voluntary sentencing standards in 75 percent of cases there, Flynt said. Alabama’s voluntary standards closely are modeled on the Old Dominion’s.

Buskey and other legislators, however, worried that some of the bills in consideration would hurt the poor of the state disproportionately, and would crowd jails with those who could not afford to pay fines.

The fines bill, which would have tripled fines for offenses across the board, drew criticism from several legislators, including Richard Laird, D-Roanoke, who affirmed his support for “law and order” before adding that the current fine system hurt those who could least afford it.

“We’ve got people who can’t pay $600 for a misdemeanor charge,” he said. “Not a felony charge. We’re talking misdemeanors.”

The House did approve amendments to the fine bill that would keep maximum fines for Class C misdemeanors and violations at $500 and $200, respectively. The proposed bill would have increased those fines to $1,500 and $600.

The DUI bill also drew criticism; Buskey argued the state’s DUI laws already were some of the toughest in the nation. Rep. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, said the bill was common sense.

“Doesn’t it make sense that if someone has a history of drunk driving, and shows disregard for citizens, does it make any difference that he showed that disregard in Georgia rather than Alabama?” he said.

The bills approved Tuesday will go to the Senate. Flynt said she would meet with senators to address their concerns before the bills come to the floor.

State Rep. Lea Fite, D-Jacksonville, said he hopes to see more measures addressing rehabilitation programs for convicts during the session, and sympathized somewhat with opponents of the DUI bill.

“There are some folks who feel like they’re unfairly targeted,” he said. “Primarily, they say a lot of poor people can’t afford attorneys for DUI convictions, and to a point they may be correct.

“But they know this (not to drink and drive).”

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