Some Haines residents have been getting lucky lately as a convergence of circumstances has led to an uptick in the number of criminal cases being thrown out of the Haines Court.

Assistant district attorney Amy Paige said two factors have led her office to recently dismiss a slew of cases: the state’s dismal fiscal situation and the passage of Senate Bill 91, a comprehensive crime bill that overhauled criminal code in an attempt to reduce the prison population.

The crime bill, which Gov. Bill Walker signed into law last week, reduced many misdemeanors to violations, including many of the misdemeanors that frequently crop up in Haines: driving without a valid license, violating conditions of release, etc. That means those crimes will be punished with a fine rather than jail time, much like speeding tickets.

“Basically, from top to bottom it changed everything about our criminal code, including the way we do a lot of our day to day work,” Paige said.

In addition to SB 91, the state’s financial situation is also limiting the Alaska Department of Law’s resources. Paige has to screen out cases that have a “disproportionate” ratio of resources to return.

“I would rather prioritize those cases that have victims – like deaths or assaults – than those cases that don’t,” she said. “I have to make a decision about which of those (cases) are – so to speak – valuable enough to justify traveling to or pursuing.”

“We are doing everything to uphold law, but we do have budgetary factors that we are required to take into consideration,” Paige added.

That puts the squeeze on some of the outlying communities like Haines, because district attorneys need to fly in and out for trials, she said. “We want to make sure outlying communities don’t feel like they are being neglected,” Paige said.

In the past three weeks, 10 charges against Haines residents have been dismissed. Those charges included reckless endangerment, driving without a valid operator’s license, violating conditions of release and minor consuming/possessing alcohol.

A couple of the dismissed charges were due to flaws specific to the cases – Paige felt she couldn’t prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt with the evidence provided, for example – but mostly they were thrown out due to SB 91 and tight funds.

“By and large what you are seeing is a direct result of SB 91 and the budgetary constraints that our office is facing,” Paige said.

Haines Borough Police Department Sgt. Josh Dryden, who recently served as interim chief and has worked in Haines since March 2014, receives update reports on all of the charges he forwards to the district attorney’s office. Those reports include how the case was resolved, either by plea deal, trial or dismissal.

In the cases of dismissal, a reason is usually provided on the report, Dryden said. On a recent reckless endangerment case involving children, for example, the reason given was “not fiscally responsible for (the state) to pursue,” he said.

That’s an explanation he’s been seeing a lot more often. “There have been more. There has been an uptick in that reasoning since I’ve been here,” Dryden said.

Dryden said he is sympathetic to the state’s financial plight, but that doesn’t mean he likes it when one of his cases is dismissed.

“I get it. I don’t like it, but I understand it,” Dryden said. “I can’t take it personally when my case gets thrown out. I have to go out and do my job.”

Dryden is not a supporter of SB 91, which in addition to reducing many misdemeanors to violations, also reforms sentencing, pretrial supervision, bail and parole/probation.

By reducing potential sentences and essentially making it easier to escape jail time, the state is removing deterrents that keep people from breaking the law, Dryden said.

“The penalties have been decreased so much. The deterrent is not there,” he said.

One change that irked Dryden was the reduction of violating conditions of release from a misdemeanor offense to a violation. A person is charged with violating conditions of release when he or she is charged or convicted of a crime, ordered to follow a set of conditions by the court, and then breaks those conditions. Conditions might involve restrictions on travel, gun ownership, consumption of alcohol, etc.

“You’re breaking your promise to the court” when you violate conditions of your release, Dryden said. “I hope the state knows what they are doing.”

Proponents of SB 91 claim it will save the state millions of dollars, which will then be reinvested in treatment programs and other prevention measures to reduce recidivism.

State Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, who sponsored SB 91, said the commission that developed recommendations for the bill researched how other states have reduced recidivism, which in Alaska is hovering around 60 percent.

Coghill said he is sympathetic with the “Will it work?” question.

“People are nervous. It’s a new way of doing things,” he said.

By reducing the number of people going to jail and how long they stay there, the state will also avoid constructing a new facility to accomodate the growing prison population, Coghill said.

“What we’ve done is allow the court system to get them into programs instead of keeping them in jail,” he said.

Assistant district attorney Paige said SB 91 is “confusing” and a lot of details still need to be worked out. One of the unclear elements is how retroactive the new law is, and whether the people whose misdemeanor cases have been dismissed can now be “re-charged” with a violation.

“We’re still trying to figure out the contours of the law,” she said. “It’s always a rocky transition from one unified criminal code to a new, different criminal code.”

Violations that were formerly misdemeanors can now be handled as “officer prosecutions,” where the officer who issues the citation or violation is largely in charge of handling the case.

“I need to talk with Haines about whether and what charges they are willing to take over and prosecute themselves,” Paige said. “If they don’t (want to), then I need to talk with my department about what to do.”

Author