CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to keep more offenders out of prison for many nonviolent crimes and save the state corrections department money.
Wyoming has one of the nation’s lowest repeat-offender rates but above-average incarceration rates, Joint Judiciary Committee co-chair Sen. Leland Christensen, an Alta Republican, told the Casper Star-Tribune (https://bit.ly/2hDCllH).
The bill would allow judges to stop court proceedings for certain non-violent offenders without a previous felony conviction and, with the consent of prosecutors and defendants, place them on probation. A conviction would be postponed pending successful completion of probation.
Those charged with a variety of crimes, such as murder or aggravated assault, wouldn’t be eligible. But those charged with robbery, fraud, child abuse and certain other crimes could be.
“Not everybody needs to be locked up,” said Christensen, a former deputy sheriff with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office.
Critics say the proposal could limit what factors judges consider in sentencing.
Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen said the bill could bring a “cookie-cutter approach” to sentencing that restricts how a judge considers an offender’s history.
“It reduces the criminal justice system to a stack of forms and an assembly line,” Blonigen said.
Gov. Matt Mead, a former federal prosecutor, said he believes there is “room for improvement” in the bill but that he shares the lawmakers’ objectives.
“I think there are opportunities to recognize that some of the people we have in the penitentiary now could do just as well on parole and could be productive members of society,” Mead said.
The Department of Corrections says the bill could save it about $7.6 million annually - with an upfront cost of $2.8 million.
As of Dec. 15, the department housed 2,169 inmates, or about 81 percent of capacity.
A similar bill died last year, with lawmakers saying there wasn’t enough money for it. Legislators this year face a $400 million shortfall in the state’s operational budget.
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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