Originally Posted by Rochard

I haven't looked over the bill, but right out of the gate I don't think it's a good idea.

It sounds like something similar we passed here in California. The goal was reduce the amount of money law enforcement spent on arresting people and keeping them in prison. Sounds like a good idea. So they reduced the amount of time criminals are spending in jail / prison, and also made some crimes minor crimes so they don't get arrested. The results have been horrible.

Now if someone smashes the window of your car to take something from it.... In the event they get caught they do not get arrested but instead get a "court summons" to appear in court. Most of the people doing these crimes are homeless or drug addicts, so they never show up... So the end result is instead of arresting someone and holding them, they let them go, the courts go through the process of declaring them a no show, then they have to issue a warrant for the person, then arrest them... So the end result is it costs law enforcement MORE money and in the mean time the victim doesn't get any help.

Then.... We are now letting people out earlier. There is less incentive to not commit crimes.... If someone is thinking of breaking in and robbing a house they might not doing it knowing the punishment is four years in prison... but if the punishment is only four months in prison they might be wiling to do it.

Criminals need to go to jail. They need to stay in jail. If someone breaks a window of a car and do thousands of dollars in damage to steal $10, they need to go prison - not get out in a few months to do it again.