Commission considers wording changes to purposes and principles, adds 'effective community supervision'
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Summary
Staff proposed edits to the guidelines’ purpose and principle language, substituting less stigmatizing terms and explicitly listing 'effective community supervision' alongside rehabilitation, deterrence and incapacitation; commissioners suggested minor wording edits and signaled informal consensus to include the changes.
A staff member presented proposed language edits to the sentencing guidelines’ purposes and principles section, incorporating recommendations from an academic draft and past commissioner suggestions.
The changes would reduce or replace the term “defendant” where feasible with “offender” (while acknowledging statutory usages) and add “effective community supervision” to the list of sentencing purposes. The presented draft also reorganized a paragraph on how criminal history contributes to sentencing considerations and added a short clause to emphasize risk assessment when appropriate.
Commissioner Laura Price recommended a simple wording change to the list of purposes: replace “including through effective community supervision” with a straightforward list using “and” ("rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and effective community supervision"). Several commissioners supported the editorial change.
Chair Jennifer Mitchell asked whether commissioners wanted the proposed language included in the overall package; members nodded and staff recorded that they would incorporate the edits.
Staff will circulate an updated redline of the purposes and principles text and include the change in the consolidated package for review at the next meeting.
Ending
The commission indicated informal consensus to include the staff-proposed wording changes, subject to the redlined language being circulated before the October meeting.
