DeLeo: House will broaden scope of anti-crime bill - Lincoln, MA - Lincoln Journal

DeLeo: House will broaden scope of anti-crime bill - Lincoln, MA - Lincoln Journal

"Boston — Hoping to break a stalemate with the Senate on a criminal justice package intended to eliminate parole for repeat violent offenders, House Speaker Robert DeLeo indicated Monday he intends to put before the House a slew of crime policies acted on in the Senate but left untouched by the House prior to the winter recess.

“Hopefully, we can get the other portions done and send them all into a conference,” DeLeo told the News Service on Monday.

The proposals range from changes in drug weights and a crackdown on gun possession by convicted felons to the judicial option to include pets in restraining orders and a plan to shrink the size of schools zones within which drug offenders receive stiff mandatory minimum sentences.

The Senate unanimously supported these proposals and others during a November debate. Days later, the House passed a bill to eliminate parole for third-time violent felons, leaving the other issues unaddressed.

House leaders argued members needed more time to review the provisions of the plan adopted by the Senate. The competing bills were sent to a six-member conference committee intended to iron out differences between the bills, but Senate President Therese Murray has suggested the Senate would be unwilling to accept a three-strikes rule without accompanying reforms.

DeLeo said the remaining pieces of the crime package, along with a bill reforming oversight of education collaboratives and Murray’s financial reform bill filed last session, were likely the top priorities for the House early in the 2012 session.

He said he expected the House to hold a formal session Wednesday, Jan. 18 though he did not indicate what might appear on the agenda.

“Bottom line, I think for us to get a real comprehensive piece relative to sentencing reform we have to do that. If we didn’t get the bill so late last time, it would have been a whole lot easier to do it that way, but we just didn’t have the time to do the whole bill,” DeLeo said.

The conference committee – chaired by Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty, D-Chelsea, and Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, – has largely remained at odds, with the House insisting its members are not prepared to weigh in on the Senate’s more comprehensive bill and the Senate refusing to back down from its omnibus proposal.

But DeLeo’s stance, and his plans to take action on the proposals, indicates a solution could be nearing."

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