SENATE BILL NO. 471

A bill to amend 1927 PA 175, entitled

"The code of criminal procedure,"

by amending section 33a of chapter IX (MCL 769.33a), as amended by 2018 PA 576; and to repeal acts and parts of acts.

the people of the state of michigan enact:

CHAPTER IX

Sec. 33a. (1) The criminal justice policy commission shall do all of the following:

(a) Collect, prepare, analyze, and disseminate information regarding state and local sentencing and proposed release policies and practices for felonies and the use of prisons and jails.

(b) Collect and analyze information concerning how misdemeanor sentences and the detention of defendants pending trial affect local jails.

(c) Conduct ongoing research regarding the effectiveness of the sentencing guidelines in achieving the purposes set forth in subdivision (f).

(d) In cooperation with the department of corrections, collect, analyze, and compile data and make projections regarding the populations and capacities of state and local correctional facilities, the impact of the sentencing guidelines and other laws, rules, and policies on those populations and capacities, and the effectiveness of efforts to reduce recidivism. Measurement of recidivism shall must include, as applicable, analysis of all of the following:

(i) Rearrest rates, resentence rates, and return to prison rates.

(ii) One-, 2-, and 3-year intervals after exiting prison or jail and after entering probation.

(iii) The statewide level, and by locality and discrete program, to the extent practicable.

(e) In cooperation with the state court administrator, collect, analyze, and compile data regarding the effect of sentencing guidelines on the caseload, docket flow, and case backlog of the trial and appellate courts of this state.

(f) Develop modifications to the sentencing guidelines for recommendation to the legislature. Any modifications to the sentencing guidelines shall must accomplish all of the following:

(i) Provide for the protection of the public.

(ii) Consider offenses involving violence against a person or serious and substantial pecuniary loss as more severe than other offenses.

(iii) Be proportionate to the seriousness of the offense and the offender's prior criminal record.

(iv) Reduce sentencing disparities based on factors other than offense characteristics and offender characteristics and ensure that offenders with similar offense and offender characteristics receive substantially similar sentences.

(v) Specify the circumstances under which a term of imprisonment is proper and the circumstances under which intermediate sanctions are proper.

(vi) Establish sentence ranges for imprisonment that are within the minimum and maximum sentences allowed by law for the offenses to which the ranges apply.

(vii) Maintain separate sentence ranges for convictions under the habitual offender provisions in sections 10, 11, 12, and 13 of this chapter, which may include as an aggravating factor, among other relevant considerations, that the accused has engaged in a pattern of proven or admitted criminal behavior.

(viii) Establish sentence ranges that the commission considers appropriate.

(ix) Recognize the availability of beds in the local corrections system and that the local corrections system is an equal partner in corrections policy, and preserve its funding mechanisms.

(g) Consider the suitability and impact of offense variable scoring with regard to physical and psychological injury to victims and victims' families.

(2) In developing proposed modifications to the sentencing guidelines, the commission shall submit to the legislature a prison and jail impact report relating to any modifications to the sentencing guidelines. The report shall must include the projected impact on total capacity of state and local correctional facilities.

(3) Proposed modifications to sentencing guidelines shall must include recommended intermediate sanctions for each case in which the upper limit of the recommended minimum sentence range is 18 months or less.

(4) The commission may recommend modifications for submission to the legislature to any law, administrative rule, or policy that affects sentencing or the use and length of incarceration. The recommendations shall must reflect all of the following policies:

(a) To render sentences in all cases within a range of severity proportionate to the gravity of offenses, the harms done to crime victims, and the blameworthiness of offenders.

(b) When reasonably feasible, to achieve offender rehabilitation, general deterrence, incapacitation of dangerous offenders, restoration of crime victims and communities, and reintegration of offenders into the law-abiding community.

(c) To render sentences no more severe than necessary to achieve the applicable purposes in subdivisions (a) and (b).

(d) To preserve judicial discretion to individualize sentences within a framework of law.

(e) To produce sentences that are uniform in their reasoned pursuit of the objectives described in subsection (1).

(f) To eliminate inequities in sentencing and length of incarceration across population groups.

(g) To encourage the use of intermediate sanctions.

(h) To ensure that adequate resources are available for carrying out sentences imposed and that rational priorities are established for the use of those resources.

(i) To promote research on sentencing policy and practices, including assessments of the effectiveness of criminal sanctions as measured against their purposes.

(j) To increase the transparency of the sentencing and corrections system, its accountability to the public, and the legitimacy of its operations.

(5) The commission shall submit any recommended modifications to the sentencing guidelines or to other laws, administrative rules, or policies to the senate majority leader, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the governor.

(6) This section and section 32a of this chapter are is repealed September 30, 2019.2023.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless Senate Bill No. 470 of the 100th Legislature is enacted into law.