EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut's Republicans and Democrats think they’ve hammered out a plan to curb crime, specifically, juvenile crime. But not everybody thinks it’s a good plan.
The compromise has been reached with just eight days left in the legislative session.
“We didn’t get everything we were looking for, they didn’t get everything they were looking for,” said Rep. Craig Fishbein, a Republican from Wallingford who co-sponsored the bill. “What this bill addresses is a problem…Any time Republicans and Democrats can come together on something and work on legislation l I think it’s a good thing for the state.”
The bill itself is 22 pages. It makes the process faster with a mandate that young people see a judge within five days of their arrest. It also imposes stricter sentences for serious crimes like murder, sexual assault and gun incidents.
“It does give short-term tools to law enforcement to deal with those types of serious situations so we restore public safety quickly,” said Chief Scott Sansom of the East Hartford Police Department.
An overriding theme of the bill seeks to crack down on repeat offenders by giving judges more access to juvenile crime records and by allowing the judicial system to track a teen suspect with a GPS monitoring bracelet.
“For those repeat offenders. For their own safety and the safety of the community make sure they get arraigned and if detention is appropriate, something appropriate along those lines,” said Gov. Ned Lamont.
The bill also overhauls the penalty structure for vehicle thefts and carjackings.
“Right now it’s treated differently based upon the value of the vehicle,” noted Rep. Fishbein.
This bill increases the penalty based on the number of times the offense is committed.
“There’s still a lot of pieces of the bill that are bad,” said Christina Quaranta, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance.
They say it doesn’t address the root causes of crime, doesn’t provide enough funding for diversionary programs and is too discipline-heavy.
“The system can’t really make you hold yourself accountable,” said Quaranta. “That’s something that you have to be ready and willing to do. Crafting a bill that makes it easier to put kids in cages and makes it easier to surveil them doesn’t make it easier on anyone. It’s very disappointing. I expected much more of Connecticut.”
The bill starts in the House, where Lamont said he expects a vote within a week but it could be as soon as Wednesday.
The governor also said he’s looking forward to passing mental health legislation which he said will also help with the crime issue.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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