ST PAUL, Minn — The state panel Thursday decided to call a timeout on a proposed change in sentencing rules, amid a storm of opposition from Republican lawmakers who accused the panel of being tone deaf on rising violence.
The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission voted to hold off on ending the custody status policy, which allows judges to hand down longer sentences in cases where the crime is committed while the person is on probation or parole for a different offense.
It's often referred to as the "custody status point" because the rule adds a half point to the offender's criminal history score, which is used to calculate a sentence.
Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, who serves on the commission, made the motion to postpone action, in hopes the commission can focus on just the custody status issue and explain what changes are actually on the table.
He said legislators had created the false impression that removing the custody status half-point would add to the current violent crime wave.
"The notion that maintaining the custody status is the difference between public safety and lack thereof is absurd," said Schell, who has spent decades as a police officer and police chief, to fellow commissioners.
Republicans and law enforcement organizations led the charge to rally public opposition to the proposed change. They encouraged residents to inundate the commission with comments, and helped line up testimony from crime victims at a January public hearing.
"This is all done with a backdrop of time we have record-setting violent crime in the metropolitan area," Sen. Warren Limmer, the Maple Grove Republican who heads the Senate Public Safety Committee, told reporters Thursday.
"The Sentencing Guidelines Commission is representative of a DFL Democrat agenda to put criminals ahead of victims."
He said Republicans will make a concerted effort in the 2022 Session to pass bills that will help tamp down the current crime wave, and rein in prosecutors who don't go hard enough on violent offenders.
Schnell and other commissioners said they have much empathy for the crime victims who testified at January's public hearing, but said their outrage was misdirected.
"Legislator testifiers appear to have taken advantage of victims' righteous anger to create confusion that elimination of custody status is the difference between justice and no justice."
Supporters say the criminal code already gives judges many options to enhance penalties for repeat offenders, who also face serious consequences for crimes that violate the terms of their probation.
They also assert custody status rules can have a disproportionate impact on people of color who are convicted of low-level drug and property crimes.
"It's one of those policies that does increase the racial disparities of who's going to prison," Catherine Middlebrook, a public defender who serves on the commission, said during Thursday's meeting.
"And I think it's our task to look at what's fair and reduce those disparities."
Advocates of the change have also argued an offender's probation status doesn't have any bearing on what the victim experiences at the time of the offense.
But Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Gordon Moore, who also serves on the sentencing commission, said current law reflects the fact that people who reoffend while on probation are flagrantly disregarding the orders of the judge who sentenced them originally.
"The rationale for it is pretty obvious. If two people commit the same crime and only one of them is on probation and expected to demonstrate incarceration for the unexpired prior conviction is unnecessary, that offender had more incentive to remain law abiding and is obviously more blameworthy than the other offender."
Commission Chair Kelly Lyn Mitchell called out Sen. Limmer for a statement he made during his press conference earlier in the day. He told reporters the sentencing commission predicted the change would result in 536 criminals being released from prison.
"Senator Limmer said if we pass this policy today 536 prisoners would be released immediately. And that is just false!" Mitchell told fellow commissioners and a larger audience watching online.
"It's the kind of statement that creates fear within our community. I'm very disappointed that Senator Limmer, as chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is unfamiliar with how our bed projections work."
The Commission's Draft Report on changes to guidelines projected how the change would reduce the demand for prison beds over the long term, based on current sentencing patterns. Mitchell said it would take at least 16 years to reach that number of avoided incarcerations.
The idea of changing the rule came up initially because of the ambiguity of a "half point." Judges can round it up to a full point or round it down to zero. On a very basic level, judges consult a sentencing guideline grid to arrive at the presumptive sentence in a case.
The X axis of the grid is the type of offense, and the Y axis of the grid is the criminal history. There are different grids for standard crimes, sex crimes and drug crimes.
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