May 22, 2012

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House passes proposal to authorize veteran’s courts in Missouri

April 9, 2012 By

Representative Jay Barnes (picture courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

The Missouri House of Representatives has approved an idea to create an alternative to jail or prison time for veterans accused of relatively minor crimes. The proposal would create “veteran’s courts,” much like drug courts, that challenge a defendant to go through a rigorous rehabilitation program rather than go behind bars.

Its sponsor, Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), says it will offer a veteran the substance abuse or mental health programs he or she might need after serving in combat. “We know that veterans are capable of being productive citizens, and the point of our criminal justice system where we know somebody who’s a first time offender might have some mental health issue or something that is preventing them from fulfilling their full potential … we need to put them on the right track.”

Like drug courts, the judge, prosecutor and defendant in a case would have to agree on the veteran’s court option. The defendant would then enter treatment programs run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “Those treatment programs take into account their experiences. The VA obviously has a lot of experience with (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and substance abuse problems of soldiers.”

Barnes adds, “We want to get folks into those programs who need help. They served our country, they deserve our help.”

Veteran’s courts will not be an option for those who are accused of heinous crimes. “We’re talking about (driving while intoxicated), we’re talking about a bar fight offense, we’re talking about drug possession for personal use … things like that.”

See the legislation, HB 1110

Veterans would only get one shot to participate in the program. Barnes says, “We can’t expect Missourians to give opportunity after opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, because when somebody knows there’s always the possibility that they get help again, they’re much less likely to actually turn things around.”

Barnes expects the veteran’s court option will also be as challenging for a defendant as drug courts. “Serving your time is easier than going to drug court. That might be hard for some folks to believe, but I’ve seen it … the defendants that are willing to go into the program have recognized they’ve got a problem and they want help.”

He is optimistic the idea would help some who truly need it. “Hopefully they go into that VA program, they get the help they need, they turn their life around and live a productive life for the rest of their years.

The bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Law Enforcement, Legislature, Military, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

House considers higher standard of proof of liability in detention facility suicides

April 4, 2012 By

The state House has narrowly given initial approval to a bill to raise the burden of proof in civil suits that result from a suicide in a detention center.

Representative Mike Kelley (photo courtesy, Missouri House Communications)

The bill is sponsored by Representative Mike Kelley (R-Lamar), who says right now when an offender commits suicide in a state, city or county jail, prison, juvenile or mental care facility, the threshold of liability in a suit against that facility is too low. “That’s not the city, county or the state taxpayers’ responsibility to compensate that family for a decision that young man or woman made. I feel sorry for that situation, I feel sorry for the family … but it’s not one that the taxpayers need to be put on the dime for.”

Kelley says it should be harder to hold those facilities liable because the way inmates are monitored, a suicide could be over before the attempt is discovered. “Right now the standard, they say checking on an inmate every hour is considered a good standard. That’s a statewide recognized, United States recognized standard. Well, you can commit suicide in less than an hour.”

Kelley wants to raise the burden of proof from negligence to gross negligence. Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis), a practicing attorney, says that would set the bar too high.

“In essence, somebody whose actions are so outrageous that they’re extreme. What actions could be so outrageous that they’re extreme? A correctional officer walking by a cell seeing somebody swinging from a sheet, waiting, and that C.O. not cutting them down. That’s extreme.”

See the legislation, HB 1272

Representative Rory Ellinger (D-St. Louis) says he fears the change would lead to an increase in the rate of suicides. “The reason that the number of suicides is falling is because sheriffs don’t want a dead person in their jail. They don’t want a guard who’s negligent. So if a guard falls asleep instead of watching a monitor where the guy’s making a noose and so on, somebody should pay for that.”

Ellinger says if the standard only requires checking on inmates once an hour, perhaps the legislature should consider changing the standard, instead of liability standards.

“In many jails where there are not suicides they don’t let people have bedclothes or clothing that they can hang themselves with, and I think that’s great … why can’t that be the standard?”

The bill received initial approval on a 74-70 roll call vote. One more favorable vote will send it to the Senate.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Maker tells House lawmakers new drug is harder to use to make meth

March 29, 2012 By

Once again a proposal has been offered in the House to require a prescription for the purchase of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, because those products can be used to make methamphetamine. The bill’s sponsor says it has a “new twist,” however. 

Representative Dave Schatz presents HB 1952

Representative Dave Schatz (R-Sullivan) says a new provision in the bill would specify that drugs that are not feasible for use in making meth would not require a prescription. Schatz tells the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety a new product is about to reach the market that fits that description.

“There’s a technology that’s been developed that does not allow for the extraction of any more than … less than five percent of its volume to be turned into meth. Currently the pseudoephedrine that’s out there has a very, very much higher extraction rate and that’s what’s used to make methamphetamine.”

The maker of the new technology, called Tarex, is Highland Pharmaceuticals, based in St. Louis. President and CEO Jim Bausch, tells lawmakers, “We can defeat all the methods used for clandestine production of methamphetamine.” He says the new drug, to be marketed under the name Relēva, will be on the market in four to six weeks.

The bill, and the product, were supported in the hearing by several law enforcement organizations. Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan equated the new product to when Henry Ford’s Model “T” replaced the horse & buggy. “These folks should be applauded. This is the silver bullet for meth labs.”

Several groups spoke against the legislation, saying the effectiveness of this new product remains to be seen and the prescription requirement adds cost and inconvenience for Missourians who use currently available cold medicines. Missouri Pharmacy Association CEO Ron Fitzwater says it’s too early to base statute on this product. “I hope we’re sitting here next year, we’re talking about an extremely successful product that has come into our stores … that our members have seen market shares shift and they’ve started to move some of the other products off the counter, but today that’s not the situation we’re in. We’ve got a hypothetical product that looks very positive.”

The President of the Missouri Narcotics Association, Sergeant Jason Grellner, disputes Fitzwater’s statement that the product is not ready. “This has been tested by the DEA for many weeks. They can’t break it. I’ve talked to the laboratory people, I sent it to the DEA laboratory. I sat and tried to make meth out of it with a one pot bottle. You can’t do it with this product.”

Some lawmakers raised concerns about passing Schatz’s bill. Minority Whip Mike Colona (D-St. Louis) said, “So then what we really are going to do is legislate a preference for that drug company to sell its products in Missouri.”

Representative Brandon Ellington (D-Kansas City) says it would set a dangerous precedent. “Then we could pick and choose whatever industry we want and promote whatever company we want to promote, as opposed to promoting public safety. If we were promoting public safety, it seems like that would be something that would be patented or made law for all drug companies to have the same requirements, that their drugs could not be broke down to make methamphetamine.”

Bausch attempted to alleviate those concerns. “We will be glad to work with any other company that wants to adopt this technology for their pseudoephedrine products.”

The Committee has not had a vote on the bill.

Filed Under: Business, Crime & Courts, Featured, Health & Medicine, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Capitol security debated (AUDIO)

March 20, 2012 By

About six weeks after a half-dozen state lawmakers found orange gun sight cross-hair stickers on their office nameplates, an effort has started to increase capitol security.

The person who put the stickers on the nameplates has not been found.   Senator Robin Wright-Jones of St. Louis, one of those who got one of the stickers, says the incident shows  security cameras should be mounted in the hallways and the state should be able to hire a private security company to supplement capitol police.

But other senators warn against over-reacting.  And one, Senator Tim Green of Spanish Lake, thinks the present capitol police force can adequately handle building security.  He says private security people just walk around and when there’s trouble, the call capitol police.   

A private company ran metal detectors in the capitol for months after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the east. But those operations later shut down because the state couldn’t afford them.

Jones has put her bill aside before getting it to a vote         

 AUDIO: debate 29:23

AUDIO: debate part 2 19:39

AUDIO: debate, part 3 20:27

Filed Under: Featured, Human Interest, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government, Terrorism

House proposal would take tobacco out of prisons (AUDIO)

March 15, 2012 By

Legislation that would ban smoking in the state’s corrections system has led to some interesting discussion in the House Corrections Committee.

Representative Chris Molendorp

Current state law restricts smoking at correctional facilities to designated areas outside. Representative Chris Molendorp’s (R-Belton) proposal would ban use of tobacco products at correctional facilities beginning July 1, 2013. He says that allows time to engage public health foundations who offer smoking cessation programs.

Molendorp says the budget for medical services for Missouri’s inmate population has jumped by $15 million in the last two fiscal years to a proposed $149 million in the Governor’s fiscal year 2013 budget. How many of those medical needs can be connected to smoking is unclear. Another proposed $376 million would go to health care for correctional officers. Molendorp says all of that approximately $525 million dollars in inmate and employee healthcare comes from general revenue.

Molendorp says 26 other states have come up with plans that have worked. “(They) have an intake process that informs the inmate under our care, custody and control that it will be a tobacco-free environment. Florida went to it. Their penal system is much larger than ours. Cass County does it.”

He says he knows the issue is emotional and controversial. “But at some point, we need to acknowledge that this is a public policy that shouldn’t just be changed for the sake of change but it is a true financial management issue. We have failed to control costs in an area where we can’t identify a factor that will begin to blunt that cost explosion.”

Lobbyist for the Department of Corrections Andy Briscoe told the Committee cigarette sales in prisons generates $5.7 million annually. “Those funds are kept within the Department of Corrections and used to fund various educational programs, spiritual programs and recreational programs at our facilities.”

The Corrections Officers Association testified against the bill. Lobbyist Harry Hill says the idea would make tobacco products a “black market” item. “There will be cigarettes in (the prisons), and then it become a much more precious commodity. There will be more fights, more disruption, more instances where corrections officers are put in peril because they have to break up fights or spend a lot of time searching for the cigarettes.”

University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher Stan Cowen supports the bill and says there is little evidence supporting the argument that stopping smoking will make cigarettes a valuable “black market” item. “When surveyed in 2007, 51 of the U.S. Departments of Corrections reported no violence or riots associated with the transition to stricter tobacco policy.”

Representative Kathie Conway (R-St. Charles) told Molendorp his proposal raises another idea. “Should we maybe extend the non smoking rule to everyone who takes any form of state aid? Because people on Medicaid … we don’t tell them they can’t smoke but yet we are paying for their health care just the same.”

AUDIO: Listen to the Corrections Committee discussion of HB 1136.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Human Interest, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , ,
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