SB-0844, As Passed Senate, December 21, 2018
HOUSE SUBSTITUTE FOR
SENATE BILL NO. 844
A bill to amend 1927 PA 175, entitled
"The code of criminal procedure,"
by amending section 33a of chapter IX (MCL 769.33a), as added by
2014 PA 465.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
CHAPTER IX
Sec. 33a. (1) The criminal justice policy commission shall do
all of the following:
(a) Collect, prepare, analyze, and disseminate information
regarding state and local sentencing and proposed release policies
and practices for felonies and the use of prisons and jails.
(b) Collect and analyze information concerning how misdemeanor
sentences and the detention of defendants pending trial affect
local jails.
(c) Conduct ongoing research regarding the effectiveness of
the sentencing guidelines in achieving the purposes set forth in
subdivision (f).
(d) In cooperation with the department of corrections,
collect, analyze, and compile data and make projections regarding
the populations and capacities of state and local correctional
facilities, the impact of the sentencing guidelines and other laws,
rules, and policies on those populations and capacities, and the
effectiveness of efforts to reduce recidivism. Measurement of
recidivism shall include, as applicable, analysis of all of the
following:
(i) Rearrest rates, resentence rates, and return to prison
rates.
(ii) One-, 2-, and 3-year intervals after exiting prison or
jail and after entering probation.
(iii) The statewide level, and by locality and discrete
program, to the extent practicable.
(e) In cooperation with the state court administrator,
collect, analyze, and compile data regarding the effect of
sentencing guidelines on the caseload, docket flow, and case
backlog of the trial and appellate courts of this state.
(f) Develop modifications to the sentencing guidelines for
recommendation to the legislature. Any modifications to the
sentencing guidelines shall accomplish all of the following:
(i) Provide for the protection of the public.
(ii) Consider offenses involving violence against a person or
serious and substantial pecuniary loss as more severe than other
offenses.
(iii) Be proportionate to the seriousness of the offense and
the offender's prior criminal record.
(iv) Reduce sentencing disparities based on factors other than
offense characteristics and offender characteristics and ensure
that offenders with similar offense and offender characteristics
receive substantially similar sentences.
(v) Specify the circumstances under which a term of
imprisonment is proper and the circumstances under which
intermediate sanctions are proper.
(vi) Establish sentence ranges for imprisonment that are
within the minimum and maximum sentences allowed by law for the
offenses to which the ranges apply.
(vii) Maintain separate sentence ranges for convictions under
the habitual offender provisions in sections 10, 11, 12, and 13 of
this chapter, which may include as an aggravating factor, among
other relevant considerations, that the accused has engaged in a
pattern of proven or admitted criminal behavior.
(viii) Establish sentence ranges that the commission considers
appropriate.
(ix) Recognize the availability of beds in the local
corrections system and that the local corrections system is an
equal partner in corrections policy, and preserve its funding
mechanisms.
(g) Consider the suitability and impact of offense variable
scoring with regard to physical and psychological injury to victims
and victims' families.
(2) In developing proposed modifications to the sentencing
guidelines, the commission shall submit to the legislature a prison
and jail impact report relating to any modifications to the
sentencing guidelines. The report shall include the projected
impact on total capacity of state and local correctional
facilities.
(3) Proposed modifications to sentencing guidelines shall
include recommended intermediate sanctions for each case in which
the upper limit of the recommended minimum sentence range is 18
months or less.
(4) The commission may recommend modifications for submission
to the legislature to any law, administrative rule, or policy that
affects sentencing or the use and length of incarceration. The
recommendations shall reflect all of the following policies:
(a) To render sentences in all cases within a range of
severity proportionate to the gravity of offenses, the harms done
to crime victims, and the blameworthiness of offenders.
(b) When reasonably feasible, to achieve offender
rehabilitation, general deterrence, incapacitation of dangerous
offenders, restoration of crime victims and communities, and
reintegration of offenders into the law-abiding community.
(c) To render sentences no more severe than necessary to
achieve the applicable purposes in subdivisions (a) and (b).
(d) To preserve judicial discretion to individualize sentences
within a framework of law.
(e) To produce sentences that are uniform in their reasoned
pursuit of the objectives described in subsection (1).
(f) To eliminate inequities in sentencing and length of
incarceration across population groups.
(g) To encourage the use of intermediate sanctions.
(h) To ensure that adequate resources are available for
carrying out sentences imposed and that rational priorities are
established for the use of those resources.
(i) To promote research on sentencing policy and practices,
including assessments of the effectiveness of criminal sanctions as
measured against their purposes.
(j) To increase the transparency of the sentencing and
corrections system, its accountability to the public, and the
legitimacy of its operations.
(5) The commission shall submit any recommended modifications
to the sentencing guidelines or to other laws, administrative
rules, or policies to the senate majority leader, the speaker of
the house of representatives, and the governor.
(6) This section and section 32a of this chapter are repealed
4
years after the effective date of the amendatory act that added
this
section.September 30, 2019.