Judiciary Committee reviews H.410 to redefine recidivism measures

March 13 — The Judiciary Committee examined H.410, a bill that would change how the state calculates recidivism and add a separate classification for repeat violent offenders, during a meeting in which committee counsel and members requested additional input from the Department of Corrections and independent researchers.

Ben Novogratzky, legislative counsel for the committee, said the proposal would simplify the current recidivism metric. "Essentially what this bill is doing is redefining the current calculation of recidivism," Novogratzky said, describing the existing measure as limited to offenders sentenced to more than one year who return to prison within three years and whose new sentence or violation results in at least 90 days behind bars.

The bill would instead define recidivism as a person who is convicted of a criminal offense after receiving a prior criminal conviction, and it would add a separate definition for a "repeat violent offender" tied to the Department of Corrections' internal crime-type categories. Novogratzky said the change is intended to align statutory language with the data terms the department already uses.

Committee members pressed several points of clarification. Barbara, a committee member, asked whether the bill's measure would line up with national measures used by the Department of Justice and other states. "Do we know if this at all lines up with that?" she asked. Novogratzky said the draft language was developed with input from the state's attorneys, CRG, and the attorney general's office but that he could not say how it would compare with other jurisdictions.

Sarah, a committee member, asked whether violations of conditions of release would count as a criminal offense for the purposes of the measure. "Would a violation of a condition of release be a criminal offense?" she asked. Novogratzky responded that a violation could count only if it were charged and resulted in a conviction; otherwise, prosecutors can address breaches through bail hearings rather than new convictions.

The bill would change how the Department of Corrections classifies recidivism into four classes based on elapsed time from sentencing or disposition: class 1 (not less than 1 year), class 2 (3 years), class 3 (5 years), and class 4 (10 years). For repeat violent offenders the same class periods would apply but the triggering subsequent offense would be violent under the department's crime-type categorization. Novogratzky acknowledged committee concerns about the imprecision of the term "violent" and recommended further input from DOC and CRG to clarify how crime types are labeled and used.

Members also raised technical questions about start and end points for calculation (release date vs. disposition or arraignment date), how deferred sentences and expungements would affect calculations, and whether juvenile adjudications in family court would be included. Novogratzky said the draft treats the measure as tied to criminal convictions and that family-court adjudications are not the bill's focus.

There was no formal vote on H.410. Committee members agreed to seek testimony and technical details from the Department of Corrections and from research partners (CRG) before advancing the bill. The committee adjourned and scheduled further business for later in the afternoon.

Next steps indicated in the meeting record included obtaining DOC's description of its crime-type categories, asking CRG how it would report the classes, and clarifying the bill's treatment of deferred sentences and expungements before the committee takes further action.