HB253 & HB483 Pass Judiciary Committee

I've just learned from a member of the House Judiciary Committee that both HB253 & HB483 passed the house judiciary committee yesterday with relative ease.

HB253 is the bill that mandates that any public agency testing urine or blood samples of probationers and parolees for drugs hold those samples for a longer period of time to allow for independent testing when a positive result occurs.

HB483 is the records expungement bill that will allow people who have been arrested/charged with a crime but never convicted to have all court records, fingerprints, photos etc removed from the criminal offender database.

Many, many thanks to all of you who took action on these bills and helped them pass. That's three bills this week that have passed because you, readers, took action. Together we can do great things.

HB407 "Stop Starving AL Prisoners" bill passes committee

Many thanks to all of you who wrote/called/visited your legislator and asked for their support on HB407, the "STOP STARVING ALABAMA INMATES" bill, which was, believe it or not, sponsored by police officer/legislator Re. Allen Treadaway (R- Jefferson). HB497 passed the House County and Municipal Government committee today. We did it! Later, I will post updates about what action needs to be taken next to get this bill on the Governor's desk.

Currently, all I know about HB253 (drug testing bill) and HB483 (criminal records expungement bill) are that they were both read a second time in the house of origin....and to be perfectly honest I am not sure what that means exactly. The Tuscaloosa News and other newspapers generally post a legislative action summary around this time of day, so, hopefully I will know more soon.

Two Very Important Bills to Support This Week

There are two very important bills coming up in the House Judiciary Committee this week that I need all of my readers to write/call/visit about.

The first bill, sponsored by Rep. Steve Hurst is HB253. This bill would require any public agency testing blood or urine samples to determine if an individual is in compliance with the terms of his or her parole or probation to retain the samples for a certain period of time to allow independent testing at the cost to the individual when the samples test positive.

Currently, if a probationer or parolee test positive for drugs or alcohol they are immediately sent back to jail with no recourse to get an independent test conducted on their urine sample. Here is a link to a page that lists all of the different things that can cause a false positive on a urine screen. The long list is near the bottom of the page. According to Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb's recent address to the joint session of the House and Senate there are 1,600 in Alabama prison for technical violations such as a false positive on a drug screen. That is costing Alabama taxpayers nearly $25 million a year just to house them in prison. Also, here is an excellent article by the BHAM News in 2004 that is being used by the Alabama Sentencing Commission which covers this very subject.

Next up is Rep. Chris England's records expungement bill. HB483. Existing law does not authorize the criminal record related to a charge to be sealed or expunged if the person is found not guilty of a crime or if the charges are dismissed or for a conviction record to be sealed or expunged.
This bill would authorize a person charged or convicted of certain felony or misdemeanor criminal offenses, a violation, or a traffic violation to petition the court in which the charges where filed or in which the conviction occurred to have his or her records expunged, including, but not limited to, arrest records, fingerprints, photographs, or index references in documentary or electronic form, relating to the arrest or charge, or both, and conviction in certain instances.

The House Judiciary Committee contact info is here.