Goals for new Alaska crime law range from harsher penalties for drug dealers to reducing recidivism

Gov. Mike Dunleavy holds up the omnibus crime bill, House Bill 66, after signing it at a July 11, 2024, ceremony held at the Department of Public Safety's aircraft hangar at Lake Hood in Anchorage. At his side are Sandy Snodgrass, whose 22-year-old son died in 2021 from a fentanyl overdose, and Angela Harris, who was stabbed in 2022 by a mentally disturbed man at the public library in Anchorage and injured so badly that she now uses a wheelchair. Snodgrass and Harris advocated for provisions in the bill.Behind them are legislators, law enforcement officers and others. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday signed into law a bill originally aimed at curbing the meteoric rise in opioid overdoses in the state, but which turned into comprehensive crime legislation that Alaska lawmakers approved in the final hours of the legislative session.

A bill-signing ceremony was held at the Department of Public Safety’s aircraft hangar at Lake Hood in Anchorage. The audience in the cavernous room included several legislators, some members of Dunleavy’s cabinet, law-enforcement officers and victim advocates. Dunleavy and others who spoke were flanked by uniformed law-enforcement officers.

“By closing loopholes and narrowing in on the fentanyl crisis and making the road to justice easier for those who are victims of sex crimes, the legislation marks a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to public safety,” he said.

Lawmakers built the wide-ranging law around Dunleavy’s proposal to increase penalties for fentanyl and methamphetamine dealers. The law also directs the state to look into why minority groups are overrepresented in the carceral system, creates the crime of assault in front of a child, tightens restrictions around sex and labor trafficking and requires the state to evaluate people accused of certain violent crimes for involuntary commitment.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said the law empowers law enforcement. “House Bill 66 will give law enforcement officers across the state more tools to address some of the largest public safety problems that we are facing, including fentanyl, child sexual abuse material, and much more,” he said in a news release.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, helped shepherd House Bill 66 through to passage in its final form. It passed 19-1 in the Senate and 33-6 in the House.

“I would like to see a meaningful reduction in the level of sex assault on a statewide basis. And I would certainly like to see a reduction in the overdose deaths in Alaska that are attributed to fentanyl and methamphetamine. And I would like to see people who are victims of crimes feel like the process of going through the justice system as a victim of crime is less burdensome than it seems like it is today,” Claman said.

The ACLU and some legislators have criticized parts of the new law, including its focus on increasing penalties. Claman said certain criticisms are fair, but he thinks the law balances civil liberties with public safety.

Crackdown on drugs

The legislation sprang from a request from Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office that lawmakers increase the penalties for drug distribution. Drug distributors or manufacturers will be liable for second-degree murder if a person dies as a result of their use.

Alaska had the fastest rising rate of overdose deaths in the country in 2021 and proponents of the change say it will deter crime.

The law raises potential penalties for drug dealers by classifying the distribution of a controlled substance that causes an overdose death as a second-degree murder. Up to now, prosecutors had the option of charging distributors with manslaughter in those cases, a lesser violation.

Dunleavy said the change is an appropriate response to Alaska’s drug-overdose crime, which is dominated by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.

“For anyone to consciously say, ‘We don’t care. . .the profit motive is all that matters, we don’t care who the victims are, we don’t care how many kids are impacted, we don’t care about how many accidental poisonings there are,’ we’re going to remind them that they’d better start caring,” Dunleavy said. “Because if they don’t care, they’re going to be charged with second-degree murder.”

Sandy Snodgrass, whose 22-year-old son died from a fentanyl overdose in 2021, said that provision in the law will save lives.

“This law will bring justice to families who have lost loved ones and will help prevent further loss of life by stopping individuals who are dealing poison to our people. This law will prevent drug dealers from being released back into our communities to continue victimizing Alaskans with their poison,” she said.

She prefaced her comments with the story of her son.

“When my only child, Bruce Snodgrass was the victim of a drug-induced homicide here in Oct. 26, 2021, here in Anchorage, law enforcement and prosecutors did not have the option to file second-degree murder charges,” she said.

Her son “tragically died where he stood,” near a busy intersection in the east side of town, she said. “No one has been arrested, charged or convicted for his murder,” she said.

While fatal overdoses declined in most states last year, Alaska’s drug-caused death toll continued to climb sharply , the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May.

Alaska has 342 fatal overdoses in 2023, a record-high number , according to state data.

The CDC, using slightly different data, calculated that Alaska had a 33.32% increase in overdose deaths from January 2023 to January 2024, the highest among all U.S. states for that period. While 11 other states and the District of Columbia also posted increases, the national rate of overdose deaths fell by 3% in 2023 from the previous year. It was the first national decrease since 2018, the CDC said. Included in the statistics was a decrease in fentanyl deaths; such deaths began to skyrocket after 2014.

The law also includes a number of provisions aimed at keeping children safe and protecting people from trafficking. It creates the crime of assault in front of a child and changes the term ‘child pronography’ to ‘ child sexual abuse material ’ and creates the crime of assault in front of a child.

A bipartisan compromise made it a Class B felony to induce someone into sex trafficking by withholding drugs or a passport, in an effort to clamp down on the rise of that crime. Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, supported the last-minute amendment: “This is a sickness on the planet,” he said during the floor debate in May. “I say throw the book at ‘em!”

Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, and Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, were also strong supporters of the change. “Adding this language to our criminal statutes is incredibly valuable,” Kiehl said on the Senate floor.

The law also makes it a felony to pay for sex with someone who is a victim of sex trafficking.

Addresses overrepresentation of minority groups in prisons

Lawmakers also adopted an amendment from Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla, that requires the Department of Corrections to contract a study of why certain racial groups are disproportionately represented in the state’s carceral system and develop recommendations to reduce first encounters with the system.

The amendment is in addition to another study that Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, added to the bill while it was in committee, which requires the Department of Corrections to contract a study that specifically investigates the disproportionate representation of Alaska Native people in the state’s carceral system and to develop recommendations to reduce recidivism.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, supported the move.

“We know that communities of color are overincarcerated, we know that communities of color are more affected by drug abuse and lack of treatment options,” she said on the Senate floor. “I think we need to do all that we can to reduce entry into these systems. The best way to do that is to get information, is to have that at our fingertips.”

Tobin ultimately voted against the bill, citing its focus on incarceration rather than diversion and restitution. “All the research, all the data really showcases that increasing prison sentences does not help treat people with addiction. It’s not something that’s going to help people stop cycles,” she said after it passed.

Criticism

Civil rights advocates and other lawmakers found fault in the wide-ranging legislation, from the increased penalties for drug dealers to a provision that allows law enforcement officials to testify in court on behalf of victims and an involuntary commitment rule.

The Alaska American Civil Liberties Union criticized several components of the bill. Megan Edge directs an accountability program for the state’s prisons for the ACLU of Alaska and characterized the law as counterproductive in a statement issued in May, just after the Legislature passed it.

“HB 66 is a misguided attempt to address horrible issues that have long plagued our state. Alaska has tried to incarcerate its way out of the opioid epidemic, and the mental health crisis. These efforts have failed. The passage of this bill means those suffering from addiction will continue to struggle to find safe places to detox and receive treatment, and the most severely mentally ill will fall through the cracks,” she said.

The organization said harsher penalties for dealers and manufacturers of drugs are punitive and ineffective — it pointed to a study that shows states with similar measures saw an uptick in overdose deaths . It voiced concern that a provision that would allow law enforcement to testify on behalf of victims would increase the chances that a case would advance on questionable evidence, though it acknowledged the intent is to reduce trauma to victims it did not offer an alternative. The group also said the involuntary commitment provision “impermissibly curtails their liberty and violates constitutional rights to due process under both the United States and Alaska Constitutions.”

Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, voted in favor of the bill despite reservations about certain aspects because he said it does good things for victims of crime.

After the May vote, he said it was “ridiculous” to expect that charging people with murder for selling fentanyl will reduce overdose deaths. “That’s never worked anywhere it’s been tried,” he said. “There are some other parts of that bill that are all about bigger penalties that cost us more money and reduce crime not one bit. It’s hard to endorse wasting money.”

Claman said he thought most of the criticisms were fair and boiled down to different approaches to solving widely recognized problems. “I think this is just a policy decision that we want to reflect that we were very concerned about the high overdose rate specific to those drugs,” he said.

Claman, an attorney, added that very few drug distributors are prosecuted for manslaughter because the cases are hard to investigate and to prove in court.

Involuntary commitment

The involuntary commitment rule was one that Claman’s office fought for in particular because of his constituent Angela Harris, who was present at the signing of the bill.

That provision concerns violent offenders considered mentally incompetent to stand trial. It requires the state to seek involuntary commitment of such offenders in a psychiatric institution and allows them to be held there for up to two years.

Claman said the need for the change was apparent after a mentally incompetent man who had attacked women in the past stabbed Angela Harris while she was at the public library in 2022. Now using a wheelchair, Harris was among the crime victims who attended the bill-signing.

Claman, speaking at the event, thanked her for her work on the bill and called her to the podium to speak.

“You were a fierce and courageous advocate,” he said, noting that she traveled to Juneau multiple times and testified at every hearing considering the measure. “I know it wasn’t easy. But we couldn’t have made it here without you. You never gave up, and your passion made sure that we did not give up.”

Harris, invited by Claman to speak, wheeled to the front of the audience, held onto the podium to pull herself into a standing position, hugged Claman and spoke into the microphone.

“When the DA said my assailant could have murdered me and still walk the streets freely due to his incompetence and inability to be restored, I knew change needed to be made,” she said. “I pray that this is just the beginning of providing assistance with mentally ill persons who are a threat in our state. Thank you.”

Claman says the new law closes the loophole that allows people who may be dangerous to go free. He called it a gap between the criminal justice system and the behavioral health system.

“When somebody’s not competent to stand trial and they reach a certain standard of dangerousness, what are we going to do about it? This is about initiating involuntary proceedings,” he said after the bill passed in May.

He said he hopes the result of the law is a reduction overdoses and sexual assault — and a process wherein victims of crime to feel less burdened by the demands of the criminal justice system.

Claman said he hopes to see future legislation move in a different direction, one where the state puts resources towards making communities safer. He gave the examples of persistently high rates of sexual assault and drug overdose. “That’s not a question of ‘Is it illegal?’ The question is, ‘What are we doing about resources?’” he said. “We’ve got a long history of changing the laws, and not much has changed in the community.”

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