The legislature is in session and they are cooking up lots of criminal justice ideas many of which will become law. Most of the law makers only experience with the criminal justice system is perhaps getting a parking or speeding ticket. They need your help.

I know we can't get political on this board, so I'll just point out a few of the bills recently heard and suggest you might want to look at them. Then you might want to call your state rep and state senators' offices and give them your ideas.

SB 976 would mandate that all TDC prisoners be paroled who have completed 90% of their actual (no good time) sentence, or who are 1 year from completing their actual (again, no good time) sentence, whichever is longer.

Prisoners under very short sentences would have a year knocked off. Long term prisoners who still have not been paroled after serving 90% of their actual sentence would likewise go home early. If they mess up while on parole, their time on parole would count towards their subsequent re-incarceration.

SB 1055: Would allocate grants to probation departments which come up with "Commitment Reduction Plans" that would spell out how they will try to reduce the number of probationers going to the joint. Departments could ask for grants to pay for GPS monitoring, and other programs, but would have to agree to return a certain percentage of the grant to the degree they fail to reach their goal of reducing revocations to TDC. In short, it would provide a financial incentive for probation departments to refrain from revoking probationers.

HB 2650: Would require district judges in a district to come up with "Mandatory Intermediate Sanctions" for certain probation violations, such as failing to report, using drugs, misdemeanor crimes, etc. The probation department could then impose these prescribed intermediate sanctions without input from prosecutors or the court. The intermediate sanctions could not include extending probation, or requiring incarceration, however. And any probation violation handled by way of an intermediate sanction could never be used by the court to later revoke a probation.

I testified about this bill, and got the feeling that the legislators assume that at the local level there is no informal understanding between the DA's Office, probation officers, and the judges, as to how to handle routine probation violations, and that most all probation violations result in the probationer going to the joint.

I understand no prosecutor testified about the two Senate Bills.

I urge every prosecutor to pay attention to legislative news posted on this board, and try to make an effort to go to Austin at least once during the session to testify before the relevant committees. They really need to hear from us. If you can't do that, at least call the offices of the relevant committees and tell their staffers what you think of their bills.

If you decide you want to testify about a bill, call Shannon Edmonds first and find out what the real status of the bill is. The Legislature's website is sometimes out of date. He'll give you important pointers as well.

We need to make time for the legislature. Once a bill becomes law, often it is almost impossible to get it repealed.