The LJIC is responsible for monitoring the activities of the Office of the State Public Defender (OPD), the Department of Corrections (DOC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and any entities attached to those agencies for administrative purposes. The administratively attached entities that the LJIC monitors are: • the Board of Pardons and Parole (attached to DOC); • the Board of Crime Control (attached to DOJ until January 1, 2018, when it will transfer to DOC); • the Gaming Advisory Council (attached to DOJ); and • the Public Safety Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council (attached to DOJ).
The LJIC is required to monitor the operations of the agencies under its jurisdiction and should give specific attention to: 1) identifying issues likely to require further legislative action; 2) identifying opportunities to improve existing laws that govern an agency’s operation and programs; 3) determining whether the experiences Montanans have had with an agency can be improved through legislative action; and 4) reviewing proposed agency legislation.
The Law and Justice Interim Committee has been meeting for the last two years implementing and monitoring laws designed to reduce prison overcrowding and recidivism. The members come to the meetings with their designer coffee's and wander in late after roll call. The law enforcement personnel testifying get to put on "their good stuff" and look shiny. The agencies being monitored turn out their best looking people dressed all fancy and smiling, with reports that have been worded just right. The Committee Members tour prison facilities and of course Director Reginald Michael always looks great and speaks eloquently. Everyone looks shiny, dresses well and drinks expensive coffee...and spend millions of dollars.
The 2017 Legislature passed a package of bills purported to reduce prison overcrowding and recidivism in the Department of Corrections population. The Law and Justice Interim Committee was tasked with monitoring the operations of the agencies in implementing this package of laws. Perhaps the committee members got lost in Montana attempting to implement the law MCA 44-7-120. A law that actually provides housing for those inmates being released from prison. This law sprang from Senate Bill 65 and is now an actual law that cannot be enforced. I fear the members are lost somewhere looking for the housing created by this law. It is the only explanation I can find for their complete lack of monitoring the agencies they have been tasked to monitor and identifying opportunities to improve existing laws that govern an agency’s operation and programs.
Here are some recent newspaper headlines concerning these laws created by the legislature and tasked to the Law and Justice Interim Committee to implement and monitor.
Yellowstone County: A Montana sheriff is saying efforts to reduce jail crowding are backfiring Flathead County: “Nothing that happened at the Legislature has affected jail overcrowding at this point.
Lewis and Clark County: The planned renovations will bring capacity from the current 80 inmates to 156.
The Law and Justice Interim Committee, after two years of drinking designer coffee, listening to law enforcement personnel dressed up in their “good stuff”and listening to the carefully worded reports of monitored agencies, voted for the following legislative action to reduce prison overcrowding and reduce recidivism:
LAW AND JUSTICE INTERIM LEGISLATION
The committee voted in September 2018 to forward 3 bills to the 2019 Legislature.
- LC 93 (LClj01) — Clarifying interim oversight of the Office of State Public Defender. Section 1. Section 5-5-228, MCA, is amended to read: (iv) the office of state public defender;
- LC 360 (LClj02) — Revise appointment of board of pardons and parole members. Section 2. Section 2-15-2305, MCA, is amended to read: The members must be appointed as provided in [section 1]. using the process provided for in [section 1].
- LC 361 (LClj04) — Eliminate or revise MCA references to Article II, section 36, of the Montana Constitution (Marsy’s Law). Marsy’s Law was passed by the heart strings of voters. The Montana Supreme Court has declared Marsy’s Law unconstitutional.
Two years of work, millions of dollars and the Law and Justice Interim Committee have added 23 words in two laws to relieve prison/jail overcrowding and to reduce recidivism. Meanwhile a few miles down the road the Montana Innocence Project, with the help of volunteers and donations, have exonerated seven wrongfully convicted people in Montana. The Montana Innocence Project did this without tax payer money, wearing jeans and t-shirts and fighting state prosecutors to free innocent people.
I fail to see where the addition of 23 words is going to relieve prison overcrowding, reduce recidivism and provide housing for those leaving prison. The Law and Justice Interim Committee has given a whole new meaning to GET LOST IN MONTANA.