House DFL Says GOP Bill Jeopardizes Public Safety
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The Minnesota House finished up a week of budget cutting with a public safety package that slices spending on prisons, legal services and crime victim programs while also toughening penalties for sex offenders.
Majority Republicans said it protects the public and preserves public safety budgets; but House Democrats decried the measure, calling it the UNsafety bill, with budget cuts so deep it jeopardizes public safety.
The bill sets prison terms of 25-60 years for violent sex offenders who might otherwise be sent to a treatment facility, a program that many lawmakers believe is not effective.
"So if someone is incarcerated at age 18, they don't cooperate with the program, they'll get out of jail when they're 78 and probably can't harm anybody," said the bill's author, Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder.
The bill includes:
- $15.9 million cut the Corrections Department calls the equivalent to closing the Shakopee Women's Prison
- Possible closing of Red Wing juvenile facility
- Early prisoner releases
- Moving inmates to county jails for the last 60 days of their sentences
Democrats call the cuts too deep; and some, inexplicable. They include an up to 11 percent cut to domestic violence programs and a 65 percent cut to the Department of Human Rights.
Some Democrats described it as a joke, noting the vote on March 31.
"I am happy that we are not discussing this bill tomorrow because I would have concluded that this is an April Fool's joke," said Rep. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL- Minneapolis.
Cornish, the colorful Republican lawmaker sponsoring the bill, wore a bright yellow tie evoking police tape at a crime scene. He reprimanded critics, especially the Commissioner of Corrections, for using what he called political scare tactics.
"If we cut a commissioner's budget, we very rarely get a letter that says good job," he said.
