Sentencing reform dies for third straight year after Fann blocks Senate vote
Arizona State Prison Complex - Lewis. Image from Google Earth
Arizona will continue to have some of the strictest criminal sentencing laws in the country after Senate President Karen Fann refused to let the Senate vote on a bill that would allow some nonviolent inmates to earn early releases.
With the legislative session nearing its end on Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, told the
Arizona Mirror that Fann wouldn’t schedule Senate Bill 1064 for a vote in the Senate.
“It’s disheartening that we’re not doing more for criminal justice reform, being one of the few states left in the union that has failed to not only reform our system but to provide adequate programming for those people that are released,” Blackman said, expressing his “disappointment in our whole legislative system that we had a chance to keep communities safe, to reduce recidivism, lower the taxpayer costs,
And yet, normal in this nation means routine, incessant unmitigated killing - of each other and of ourselves. In a sense, T.S. Eliot was closer to correct than he might have imagined. April this year is as cruel as any other April.
“Normal” the past few weeks includes the following: In a Minneapolis suburb - barely 10 miles from where a Minneapolis police officer is on trial for the death of George Floyd - a young man trying to elude a traffic stop for a minor offense dies when a veteran police officer fires a bullet into his chest, which she has called an accident, claiming she meant to fire her Taser.
What we re watching this week in the Missouri Legislature: budget and preexisting condition legislation (AUDIO) missourinet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from missourinet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.