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State House reinstates get-tough-on-crime mandatory minimum prison sentences

Morning Call - 4/7/2017

April 06--Drug dealers may want to find another line of work -- and prison officials may want to buy more beds -- after the state House voted Wednesday to reinstate mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug and violent crime offenses.

The 122-67 vote to approve House Bill 741 followed a two-day debate about crime rates, fairness and costs associated with mandatory minimums. The House action runs counter to a national trend of reducing mandatory minimum prison sentences over concerns about costs and lack of evidence they reduce crime.

The bill, opposed by the state Corrections Department and supported by victims rights advocates, seeks to correct a legal defect in the state's 1990s-era mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Mandatory minimum sentences, enacted in the 1980s and 1990s, do not reduce crime or recidivism, but have led to higher taxpayer costs, according to a 2009 report issued by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.

The bill would slightly change the amount of some drugs that would trigger mandatory minimums.

For instance, the bill would ease up on those associated with marijuana and cocaine, making it harder for small-time dealers of those drugs to face mandatories. It would leave the same '90s-era penalties for heroin and methamphetamine possession and for selling drugs to minors near schools. It would add mandatory sentences for violent offenses against the elderly and infants, and for failing to register as a sex offender.

Should the bill become law, state Corrections officials estimate the department's budget would rise by $85 million to cover the costs with no evidence longer prison sentences will deter crime.

County prosecutors and Jennifer Storm, head of the state office of Victim Advocate, argued the increased costs are a small price to pay for more safety.

The bill moves to the Senate. It most likely will land in the Senate Judiciary committee, chaired by Sen. Stewart Greeneleaf, R-Montgomery, a onetime advocate of mandatory minimum sentences who has turned into vocal critic of them.

In addition, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is opposes the bill.

steve.esack@mcall.com

717-783-7305

LOCAL VOTES

Yes: Republican Reps. Joe Emrick, Marcia Hahn, Zach Mako, all of Northampton County; Republican Reps. Gary Day, Ryan Mackenzie and Justin Simmons, all of Lehigh County.

No: Democratic Reps. Bob Freeman and Steve Samuelson, both of Northampton County; Democratic Reps. Dan McNeill, Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer, all of Lehigh County.

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