2021 Annual Legislative Report
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POLICY 202 1 Arizona Criminal Justice Commission Justice Criminal Arizona Summary Legislative ARIZONA CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMISSION Chairperson: SHEILA POLK, Yavapai County Attorney Vice-Chairperson: STEVE STAHL, Chief City of Maricopa, Police Department (Retired) MARK BRNOVICH DAVID K. BYERS, Director LAURA CONVOVER Attorney General Administrative Office of the Courts Pima County Attorney GREG MENGARELLI, Mayor ALLISTER ADEL CHRIS NANOS City of Prescott Maricopa County Attorney Pima County Sheriff COL. HESTON SILBERT, Director DAVID SHINN, Director DAVID SANDERS, Chief Department of Public Safety Department of Corrections Pima County Probation Officer PAUL PENZONE JEAN BISHOP MINA MENDEZ, Chairperson Maricopa County Sheriff Mohave County Supervisor Board of Executive Clemency JEFFREY GLOVER, Chief KARA RILEY, Chief Tempe Police Department Oro Valley Police Department ANDREW T. LEFEVRE Executive Director MOLLY E. EDWARDS PIO/Legislative Liaison 1 Table of Contents About…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Executive summary and Charts.……………………………………………..……………………………..5 ACJC Priority Bills…………………………………………………………..……………………………………..12 Bills that Place a Requirement on ACJC………………………………………………………………..13 Bills that Place ACJC as a Fiscal Agency…………………………………………………….…………..13 Bills pertaining to Law Enforcement…………………………………………………………………….14 Bills Pertaining to Firearms…………………………………………………………..………………………16 Bills pertaining to Administrative Office of the Courts...……………………………………...17 Bills Pertaining to Prosecutors………………………………………………….………………………...19 Bills Pertaining to the Department of Corrections.…………………………………………..….20 Bills pertaining to Victims…………………………………………………….……………………………..21 Senate Bills that Failed……………………………………………………………..…………………………22 House Bills that Failed…………………………………………………………..…………………………….23 2 About the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission “Our mission is to continuously address, improve, sustain and enhance public safety in the State of Arizona through the coordination, cohesiveness, and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System.” The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) is a statutorily authorized entity mandated to carry out various coordinating, monitoring and reporting functions regarding the administration and management of criminal justice programs in Arizona. In accordance with statutory guidelines, the Commission is composed of 19 members who represent various elements of the criminal justice system in Arizona. Fourteen of the 19 Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and are municipal, county or elected officials. The remaining five are state criminal justice agency heads. Appointed Commissioners serve for two years which expire when the first regular session of the legislature is convened; they may be re- appointed. ACJC was created in 1982 to serve as a resource and service organization for Arizona's 480 criminal justice agencies on a myriad of issues ranging from drugs, gangs, victim compensation and assistance to criminal record improvement initiatives. The ACJC works on behalf of the criminal justice agencies in Arizona to facilitate information and data exchange among statewide agencies by establishing and maintaining criminal justice information archives, monitoring new and continuing legislation relating to criminal justice issues, gathering information, and researching existing criminal justice programs. Our mission is to sustain and enhance the coordination, cohesiveness, productivity, and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Arizona. The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission has four key program areas: Criminal Justice Systems Improvement; Drug, Gang, and Violent Crime Control (DGVCC), Statistical Analysis Center, and Crime Victim Services. The Criminal Justice Systems Improvement Program enhances the public safety, security, and forensic services for Arizona citizens through a collaborative justice information sharing environment while protecting the privacy of citizens and confidentiality of information. This program is supported through several federal grants and works with stakeholders to assess and develop implementation strategies for criminal justice system improvements throughout the state. The Drug, Gang and Violent Crime Control (DGVCC) Program coordinates the funded efforts to deter, investigate, prosecute, adjudicate, and punish drug, violent crime, and criminal street gang offenders. This is accomplished by providing funding from federal, state, and local sources to criminal justice agencies around the state. The DGVCC program administers the federally funded Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG Grant Program). The ACJC is the State Administering Agency (SAA) for this federal grant. In additional ACJC also utilizes state revenue from the Drug and Gang Enforcement Fund (DGE). Funding from all sources are used to provide resources to state, county, and local agencies to support activities that combat drug, gang, and violent crime across the state. The Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) serves as the research arm of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. The SAC was created to collect, analyze, and report on the state of criminal justice issues in Arizona by evaluating programs and policies as requested by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission or required by statute for local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies. The SAC contributes to statewide policy development in numerous areas by providing statistical research and analysis of the criminal justice system in Arizona. The SAC is the statewide equivalent of the national Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and is an active member of the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA). 3 The Crime Victim Services Program oversees and administers two key program areas for the Criminal Justice Commission: the State Crime Victim Compensation program and the State Crime Victims Assistance Program. The Crime Victim Assistance program provides grants to private non-profits or government agencies that deliver direct services to crime victims. The state Crime Victim Compensation program is administered through the ACJC, but resides locally in each of Arizona’s 15 county attorney’s offices. 4 Executive Summary The first regular session of the 55th Arizona State Legislature commenced on January 11th, 2021. This session there was a total 1,774 bills, 125 memorials and resolutions introduced. Of those bills, 473 have been signed by the Governor and 27 have been vetoed. The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission tracked over 116 bills this session that directly impacted criminal justice issues across the state. From the list of bills that we tracked; the governor signed 26 of them. The Legislature adjourned on June 30, 2021 for a total of 171 days of session. The Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) categories that had the most bills introduced and signed into law were exactly the same (CHART A and CHART B): ● Title 13: Criminal Code ● Title 15: Education ● Title 28: Transportation ● Title 32: Professional and Occupation ● Title 36: Public Health and Safety ● Title 41: State Government CHART C compares the ARS bills introduced in 2020 to 2021. The biggest overall jumps for introduction of bills between the two years was in State Government, Public Health, Transportation, Education, Elections & Elections, and the Criminal Code. Much of this can be attributed to the attention on these issues during the pandemic. CHART D and CHART E shows how many bills each legislator introduced and how many bills were signed into law. The Commission approved and put forward three bills this session, HB2166, HB2158, and HB2260. HB2166 was the Criminal Justice Commission; Data Collection bill. This bill, as crafted, was initially introduced in 2020 during the pandemic, but did not make it through the process and ultimately died. In 2021, Representative Blackman agreed to reintroduce the bill with the following provisions: Designates ACJC at the central collection point for criminal justice data collection. Provide ACJC with the authority to require state or local criminal justice agencies to submit information that is currently collected and readily reportable by the agency. Creates protections for criminal justice agencies so that data cannot be required unless it: o Is statutorily required to comply with a report, o Is required for federal or state reporting, or o Is approved by a vote of the full Commission. Authorizes ACJC to conduct a comprehensive survey of data contained in criminal justice records systems housed at local and state criminal justice agencies to create a data inventory report. 5 Provide the data inventory report to the Governor and Legislature that also includes cost estimates for ACJC to implementation of a statewide criminal justice data reporting system. Throughout the legislative process, staff worked to keep the bill as simple as possible in order to complete the survey of criminal justice agencies as a first step to understanding what data systems are currently being utilized in the state and what is needed to bring this information into one framework. Ultimately it is ACJC’s goal to provide the necessary planning and framework for Arizona to become a national leader in the collection and reporting of criminal justice data. We are happy to report that HB2166 passed both the House (59 Y, 1NV) and the Senate (27Y, 3NV), and signed into law on March 24, 2021. ACJC, in partnership with the Administrative Office of the Courts introduced HB2158. HB2158 is the Protective Orders; Central Repository;