Bill Text: MI HB4384 | 2023-2024 | 102nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Criminal procedure: sentencing; duties of the Michigan sentencing commission; provide for. Amends 1927 PA 175 (MCL 760.1 - 777.69) by adding sec. 34b to ch. IX. TIE BAR WITH: HB 4173'23
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2023-06-15 - Referred To Committee On Civil Rights, Judiciary, And Public Safety [HB4384 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2023-HB4384-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL NO. 4384
A bill to amend 1927 PA 175, entitled
"The code of criminal procedure,"
(MCL 760.1 to 777.69) by adding section 34b to chapter IX.
the people of the state of michigan enact:
Sec. 34b. (1) The Michigan sentencing commission shall do all of the following:
(a) Collect, prepare, analyze, and disseminate information regarding state and local sentencing and 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 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 must include, as applicable, analysis of all of the following:
(i) Resentence rates and return-to-prison rates.
(ii) 1-, 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. Any modifications to the sentencing guidelines must 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 ensure that offenders with similar offense 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) Establish sentence ranges that the commission considers appropriate.
(viii) Consider the necessity for local corrections system capacity and maintain funding to ensure that capacity.
(g) Consider the suitability and impact of offense variable scoring with regard to victims and victims' families and victim input and advice regarding sentences.
(2) In developing 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 must include the projected impact on total capacity of state and local correctional facilities.
(3) Modifications to sentencing guidelines must 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 to any law, administrative rule, or policy that affects sentencing or the use and length of incarceration. The recommendations must reflect all of the following policies:
(a) To render sentences in all cases within a range of severity proportionate to the gravity of offenses, victim input, and the blameworthiness of an offender.
(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 purposes 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) By December of each year, the commission shall submit to the legislature, the governor, and the Michigan supreme court a report on the implementation of legislative policies adopted in the current legislative session affecting the criminal justice system. The report must include, but need not be limited to, all of the following:
(a) Education of practitioners on changes in legislative policy, including changes in criminal statutes and an analysis of the expected impact of those changes on prison and jail populations and the average length of the sentences imposed.
(b) The length of probation supervision terms imposed.
(c) The number of noncompliance, risk, and major risk sanctions imposed on the probation population.
(d) Noncompliance and risk sanctions imposed on the parole supervision population.
(e) Parole guideline decisions.
(f) Implementation of revisions to the community corrections act, 1988 PA 511, MCL 791.401 to 791.414.
Enacting section 2. This amendatory act does not take effect unless House Bill No. 4173 of the 102nd Legislature is enacted into law.
