From Charles W. Kiker:
Patricia and I recently spent 8 days in Austin lobbying in the legislature and networking with like-minded or similarly minded people there. We were in Austin as representatives of Friends of Justice of Tulia and in cooperation and coordination with ACLU of Texas. . .
More of Charles Kiker's account of lobbying & networking on the flip side:
The networking included Ryan Valentine of the Texas Freedom Network and Marge Woods of Texas Wind Energy. I will have more to say about wind energy in another message.
ReplyDeleteOur first lobbying efforts were promoting HB 1239, a bill that would essentially eliminate multi-jurisdictional regional narcotics task forces such as the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force which supposedly supervised Tom Coleman in the infamous Tulia Drug Sting. We visited the offices of about 20 legislators in this regard.
We atttended the hearing of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Tuesday, February 22. The Committee was hearing testimony on five similar bills, among them HB 53, HB 144, and HB 1373. HB 53 enhances burglary of a motor vehicle (theft from, not of a motor vehicle) from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. A Class A misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to one year in county jail and up to a $4,000 fine. A state jail felony carries a penalty of up to two years in state jail, and of course creates a felon. HB 144 and 1373 enhance burglary of a motor vehicle up to a state jail felony if the perpetrator has a previous conviction of BMV. I testified against these bills, as our prisons are already full, and prosecutors are not taking full advantage of existing penalties as a Class A misdemeanor. Average jail time done for conviction of BMV is 9 days.
We also visited about 20 representatives' offices to speak against the above mentioned bills. We were able to speak personally with some of the representatives, including Pena, Raymond, and Hodge. Usually we spoke with staffers in the legislators' offices.
Several hopeful bills regarding Criminal Justice have been filed. HB 2098 would restructure the smallest quantiy drug offense down to a misdemeanor. HB 2406 would require drug courts to operate as pretrial diversion programs so that dismissal of felony charges is an incentive for successful completion of the program. SB 1260 would not allow probation revocation for technical probation violations. HB 1920 and SB 938 encourage probation departments to use progressive sanctions before revoking probationers to prison.
We visited the office of our representative, Warren Chisum of Pampa, to speak against his proposed Amendment to the Texas Constitution barring same-sex marriage. (More about this in a subsequent post.)
We spoke for SB 688, sponsored by Senator John Carona. This bill would create a defense for an adult who has sexual relations with a minor if the adult had been led to believe that the minor was in fact an adult. We spoke of the need to create a difference between a youthful sexual offense and sexual predation. Currently, a 17 year old who is convicted of having sex with an underage person is labeled as a sexual offender for life, and must register as such wherever he/she lives.
It was an interesting week of participatory democracy. I recommend this to anyone who has the inclination and can take the time.
Charles Kiker
Tulia, Texas