Date: February 5, 2025
To: Chairman Myers and Members, House Crime and Public Safety Committee
From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director, Empower Missouri
Re: HB 314 & HB 389
As the largest and oldest anti-poverty advocacy organization in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our inception, Empower Missouri has focused on the criminal justice system and its impacts. Our Community Justice Coalition consists of community advocates and organizations from across the state who work with those who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Many coalition members are formerly incarcerated or have currently incarcerated loved ones, and all are connected by a vision for a future without mass incarceration.
We are providing testimony today regarding HB 314, sponsored by Representative Cook, and HB 389, sponsored by Representative Casteel. These bills would repeal the current minimum prison term structure and impose significantly longer sentences. With the current state of prison understaffing, coupled with research that shows increasing mandatory minimum sentences can have an adverse effect on public safety, we believe these bills would move Missouri in the wrong direction while bearing enormous costs on state residents.
Current law stipulates certain percentages of prison terms must be served by people with one or more previous prison commitments. Additionally, anyone convicted of a dangerous felony must serve 85% of their sentence. HB 314 and HB 389 would amend the law, mandating that anyone who does not have any previous prison commitments serve a minimum of 75% of their sentence- a massive change from the existing statute, which does not stipulate a minimum for defendants without previous prison commitments. For anyone with one or more previous prison commitments, 80% of the sentence would have to be served, compared to the current structure, which mandates 40% of the sentence shall be served for anyone with one previous commitment, 50% for anyone with two previous commitments, and 80% only for those with three or more previous commitments.
These bills would also remove a provision aimed at offering earlier release eligibility for one of the lowest risk- and highest cost- populations: people over the age of 70 (currently eligible for parole after serving 30% of their sentence for those with one prior commitment, and 40% of their sentence for those with two or more prior commitments). Finally, these bills put forth a list of offenses for which 100% of a sentence must be served, something that does not currently exist for any offenses.
Decades of research show that harsh sentences are not an effective crime deterrent, and a more effective deterrent is the certainty that you will be caught. However, in 2022, 64% of violent crimes reported to police in Missouri were not solved. There are clearly other avenues to pursue to address public safety concerns, rather than double down on increasing sentences when the Missouri Department of Corrections is already facing significant staffing shortages and other challenges. For example, SB 473, sponsored by Senator Schroer, proposes a reporting system for improving violent crime clearance rates wherein the Department of Public Safety would prioritize grant funding for jurisdictions with low clearance rates. When it comes to moving away from mandatory minimums, there is a roadmap for Missouri to learn from: over 30 states have reformed or repealed their mandatory minimum sentences in the past two decades while maintaining public safety. In 2017, Louisiana repealed many of its mandatory minimums. In the first six months alone, the state saved $12 million. The state’s prison population has dropped to a level not seen since the 1990s, and the state has reinvested savings into crime-reduction and victim support programs.
The changes proposed in HB 314 and HB 389 would carry an enormous fiscal note. In 2022, Missouri spent an average of $32,595 annually per individual incarcerated in state prisons. Increasing minimum sentences will increase both the prison population and corrections costs without making our state safer. Outside of Medicaid, prison costs are the second-fastest growing area of state budgets. Prisons cost most states almost five times more than they did in the mid-1980s due to having to house and feed people for much longer periods of time. HB 314 and HB 389 would also impede the ability of the parole board to effectively do their job in determining when an individual is ready for release. Now is the time to advance policies that reduce the prison population and take an evidence based approach to public safety, not move the needle backwards by passing additional sentencing enhancements.
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