[LB366 LB446 LB560 LB593 LR26] the Committee on Judiciary Met At

Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee March 22, 2017 [LB366 LB446 LB560 LB593 LR26] The Committee on Judiciary met at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, in Room 1113 of the State Capitol, Lincoln, Nebraska, for the purpose of conducting a public hearing on LB366, LB593, LB560, LB446, and LR26. Senators present: Laura Ebke, Chairperson; Patty Pansing Brooks, Vice Chairperson; Roy Baker; Ernie Chambers; Steve Halloran; Matt Hansen; Bob Krist; and Adam Morfeld. Senators absent: None. SENATOR EBKE: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Judiciary Committee. My name is Laura Ebke. I'm from Crete, representing Legislative District 32, and I chair this committee. I'd like to start off by having my colleagues who are present go ahead and introduce themselves, starting with Senator Baker. SENATOR BAKER: Senator Roy Baker, District 30, little bit of Lincoln, southern Lancaster County, and all of Gage County. SENATOR KRIST: Bob Krist, District 10. SENATOR HALLORAN: Steve Halloran, everything west of Lincoln and Omaha. SENATOR EBKE: Oh. SENATOR HALLORAN: District 33. I'm sorry. District 33: Adams County, southern Hall County, western Hall County. SENATOR EBKE: Okay. The tardy ones are showing up here. SENATOR PANSING BROOKS: What? SENATOR EBKE: You can introduce yourself. SENATOR PANSING BROOKS: Oh. Patty Pansing Brooks, Legislative District 28, right where we're sitting. SENATOR CHAMBERS: Ernie Chambers, District 11, Omaha, Nebraska. 1 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee March 22, 2017 SENATOR EBKE: Adam. SENATOR MORFELD: Senator Adam Morfeld, District 46, northeast Lincoln. SENATOR EBKE: Do we see Senator Hansen anywhere? I'm sure he'll be here. SENATOR MORFELD: He's on his way. SENATOR EBKE: Okay, he's on his way. So assisting the committee today are Laurie Vollertsen, our committee clerk; Brent Smoyer, who is one of our two legal counsels. The committee pages today are Claire and Kaylee, who are students at the University of Nebraska. And they have somebody who is shadowing, and your name, first name? SOPHIA CRUZ: Sophia Cruz. SENATOR EBKE: Sophia, okay. And then on the table over there you will find some yellow testifier sheets. If you are planning on testifying today, please fill out and hand it to the page when you come up to testify. This helps us to keep an accurate record of the hearing. There's also a white sheet on the table if you do not wish to testify but would like to record your position on a bill. We'll begin testimony today with the introducer's opening statement. Following the opening we'll hear from proponents of the bill, then opponents, followed by those speaking in a neutral capacity. We'll finish with a closing statement by the introducer if he or she wishes to give one. We ask that when you begin your testimony you give us your first and last name and spell them for the record. If you're going to testify, I ask that you keep the on-deck chairs--we've got two on-deck chairs with the yellow...with the yellow markers there--filled so that we know how many left. If you have any handouts, please bring up at least 12 copies and give them to the page. If you don't have enough copies, the page can help make you some more. We will be using a light system today. We will be using a three-minute light system today because we have a number of very busy bills. When you begin your testimony, the light on the table in front of you will turn green. The yellow light is your one-minute warning. And when the red light comes on, we ask that you wrap up your final thought and stop. If senators have questions of you, they will ask. As a matter of committee policy, I'd like to remind everybody to turn off or silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. If you need to take a phone call, please step out in the hallway to do so. Senators and staff may be using their phones or computers here at the table in order to look things up or keep in contact with their staff. I also ask that verbal outbursts and applause are avoided. In other words, please don't. Such behavior slows things down and could also be cause for asking you to leave the room. One other thing: You may see people coming and going. There aren't too many committees still going on. We're bringing up the tail end here. But there are sometimes other meetings that senators have to go to for some period of time. So if people are 2 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee March 22, 2017 coming and going, don't take it personally. Has nothing to do with what we are hearing but, rather, with other obligations. And with that, we will begin with LB366. Senator Halloran. [LB366] SENATOR HALLORAN: Good afternoon, Chairperson Laura Ebke and members of the Judiciary Committee. For the record, my name is Steve Halloran, S-t-e-v-e H-a-l-l-o-r-a-n, and I represent the 33rd Legislative District. I'm here today to introduce LB366 to the committee for your consideration. As always, I intend to keep my remarks brief this afternoon, allowing for more time for individuals that follow me who are wholly more capable of answering your questions. I bring LB366 on the behalf of the Nebraska Board of Parole. LB366 will do...will primarily do five things: one, create Division of Parole Supervision; two, revise offender review schedule; three, create a statutory cash fund for receipt of grant funds; four, provide for confidentiality of parole records; and five, create consistency and uniformity in parole provisions specifically as it relates to leaving the state without permission from the Parole Board. Want to thank you for your time. And while I'm certainly willing to attempt to answer questions, they are more likely to be answered by those that are following me. [LB366] SENATOR EBKE: Thank you, Senator Halloran. Senator Chambers. [LB366] SENATOR CHAMBERS: And, Senator Halloran, if I have any questions, we're right next-door so I won't take up any time here. [LB366] SENATOR HALLORAN: That would be great. You're welcome to stop in anytime. [LB366] SENATOR EBKE: Any questions? Okay. First proponent. [LB366] NICOLE MILLER: (Exhibit 1) Good afternoon, Chairman Ebke, committee members and staff. My name is Nicole Miller, N-i-c-o-l-e, Miller, M-i-l-l-e-r, and I am legal counsel for the Nebraska Board of Parole. You may recall that this is a new position that was created by 2015, LB598, and I have officially been in this position for one year. One of the first tasks I undertook was to examine the current statutes governing the Board of Parole. LB366 is the product of that examination and also discussions with the Board of Parole and Julie Micek, the director of supervision and services. I will not dissect the entire bill for you, as the section outline has been provided. I do want to highlight the more noteworthy aspects and then try to answer any questions you might have. And I'm not sure if you have the outline that I handed out yet, but I'm going to skip one, two, and three, because those are very self-explanatory. I'm going to, in light of the three-minute time limit, I'm going to skip to number four. This is: Address a current inconsistency in the law with respect to parole clients who leave the state without permission of the board. Currently, leaving the state without permission from the board is a technical violation 3 Transcript Prepared By the Clerk of the Legislature Transcriber's Office Judiciary Committee March 22, 2017 under 83-1,119 and then also is a felony under 83-1,124. To resolve this inconsistency, a majority of the board felt that because the Council of State Governments recommended that such violations be considered technical, absent an absconding violation, the best way to resolve this inconsistency would be to follow the sanctions and incentive matrix for these types of violations, basically, having it not be a felony any longer. Under number five, there are three paragraphs. I'm going to skip paragraph one under subsection five because that's a historical context for what I'm bringing. And number five talks about changing the offender board review schedule to create efficiency needed as a result of the increased duties seen consequent to LB598 and also to seek creative ways for the board to assist in successful parole supervision. So right now, 20 years after 1986, LB1241 and LB1242, we're at a point where recordkeeping has (laugh) recordkeeping has come a long way. And originally, the offender review schedule was so that we could keep track of everyone who had a parole eligibility date and make sure that they were seen by the board. Because of the modern recordkeeping practices, the offender review schedule is now outdated. And we're trying to be more efficient with the board's time, so we're looking at trying to have parole-eligible people seen within three years of their parole eligibility and every year thereafter. The last point I wanted to quickly make is that the current statutes aren't very clear about what an indeterminate sentence...the distinction between an indeterminate sentence and a determinate sentence.

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