“I don’t know if we got it right. I mean I think time will tell whether this experiment, because that is what it is. But there is evidenced based that, you know, resulted in the criminal justice reform changes that are under Senate Bill 91.”
– Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth responding to a question from Rep. Charisse Millett about repeat drug offenders.
On July 11, 2017, Gov. Bill Walker wrote in the Alaska Dispatch News: “The criminal justice reform bill makes a number of very positive changes. A 13-member criminal justice commission — made up of judges, prosecutors and members of the law enforcement community — spent seven months participating in a rigorous, data-driven process that led to 21 recommendations.
“Each recommendation was rooted in research, and most were modeled after successful policies in other states. Those recommendations became SB 91. The bill was vetted through more than 50 hearings in five legislative committees. It passed with two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate.
“For the past decade, criminal justice policy has been developed without data or research. That needed to be changed. SB 91 is a reform effort aimed at maximizing the public safety return for each dollar spent.”