By Lily Guiney
Gongwer News Service
A state House panel heard testimony recently on bills to change the timeline for determining a defendant's legal competency to stand trial and to require those charged with aggravated domestic violence to wear electronic monitoring devices as a bail condition.
HB 4596 , sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Wortz, R-Quincy, would change the current deadline for charges to be dismissed if the defendant has not been deemed competent to stand trial from 15 months after an incompetency order is made to 15 months after the date the defendant is admitted for treatment at a state facility to achieve competency.
The bill was brought before the House Judiciary Committee .
Wortz said she was made aware of a case in her district where a defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial, but due to long wait times was unable to secure admission to a state facility for treatment within the current statutory deadline. She was joined in testimony by Branch County Prosecutor Zach Stempien, who said the current timeline isn't compatible with the current status of state treatment facilities, which often have monthslong waiting lists or no available beds.
"In my time as a prosecutor, I've seen defendants who have come in who were found incompetent to stand trial, the case was dismissed, only for them to be back in front of the court three, four months later on a new criminal offense and again being found incompetent to stand trial, case dismissed, and we go in this circle where there's really no punishment that we're able to do because the case is always being dismissed against that individual," he said.
Stempien cited an example of an ongoing case in which a defendant charged with attempted murder and stalking was found incompetent to stand trial.
"He was ordered to undergo treatment at the state hospital. After the court sent the order to the state hospital, they got an email back that said, 'OK, we received it. He's on the list, just so you know, he will not be admitted until at least the 366th day of his incarceration.' It took three months for him to be found incompetent," Stempien said. "So essentially nine months after the order was entered would be when he would start treatment. So that would leave us then six months to restore him, or we'd have to dismiss the case."
An added risk in cases like that one, Stempien said, is that if the case is forced to dismissal, prosecutors could refile, but the defendant could not be institutionalized or held in lawcustody during the process of refiling, leaving victims and their families feeling unsafe.
The other unintended consequence of the current setup, Branch County Sheriff Fred Blankenship told committee members, is victims not seeing a resolution to their cases because of frequent dismissals.
"You know why victims are waiting for justice? We have inmates that actually need help that aren't getting the help that they need," Blankenship said. "The mental health system in Michigan is not doing too well right now. The jails have become the de facto mental health hospitals in Michigan."
Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport, sponsored HB 4525 , which would require defendants charged with aggravated domestic violence to wear an electronic monitoring device, also referred to as an ankle monitor or a tether, as a condition of their bail.
Lightner said that while the bill might not be able to prevent domestic violence from happening initially, it could stop the all-too-common occurrence of individuals charged with domestic violence further stalking or abusing their victims.
"We're not naive to the fact that it's not going to prevent violence," Lightner said. "I mean, if there's a will, there's a way, we all know this. However, in the unfortunate cases that (law enforcement) deals with a lot of times, this information is actually used for a murder trial, unfortunately. And location services are really, really good now, usually within a few feet-accuracy level. So, you know, it's just another layer of protection out there and making sure there's justice at the end of the day."
Dave Scheppegrell of Judicial Services Group said modern ankle monitors can hold a charge for nearly a week, offer highly accurate location data and can even be used to talk to the person wearing the device through a speaker. In domestic violence cases, they're often used to pinpoint areas where a defendant cannot go without violating a personal protective order.
"These GPS devices collect location data, generally one point a minute. If there's some kind of a violation or an exclusion area, they can collect them up to every 15 seconds," Scheppegrell said. "That data is transmitted from the ankle monitors over the cellular network. It's encrypted and transmitted to a secure server where … we're able to create areas they're not allowed to go. And we can create multiple zones to warn us before they even get to that area and hopefully warn the victim and potentially notify the offender and tell them that they need to go away from that area so that they don't breach an exclusion zone."
Scheppegrell said several other states already have laws similar to what Lightner is aiming to pass. Tennessee, where every felony domestic violence defendant is outfitted with a tether, is the strictest, and Connecticut runs a similar statewide program that's been able to collect data on the impact of electronic monitoring on preventing domestic violence.
Perhaps the most important thing the monitors can provide, Scheppegrell said, is peace of mind – domestic violence survivors can trust that if their abuser violates a PPO, there will be location data immediately transmitted to law enforcement to back up their account of an incident.
"There's probably nobody in this room that hasn't had a family member impacted by domestic violence," he said. "And if you ever have a family member who is truly fearful of their ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, this bill, this technology helps to provide that additional layer of security which can help them sleep at night and can make sure that it's not just me calling the police, it's the monitoring center calling police."
Lightner's bill was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Vera Institute of Justice, neither of which testified before the committee. The committee did not vote on either bill.
Gongwer News Service
A state House panel heard testimony recently on bills to change the timeline for determining a defendant's legal competency to stand trial and to require those charged with aggravated domestic violence to wear electronic monitoring devices as a bail condition.
HB 4596 , sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Wortz, R-Quincy, would change the current deadline for charges to be dismissed if the defendant has not been deemed competent to stand trial from 15 months after an incompetency order is made to 15 months after the date the defendant is admitted for treatment at a state facility to achieve competency.
The bill was brought before the House Judiciary Committee .
Wortz said she was made aware of a case in her district where a defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial, but due to long wait times was unable to secure admission to a state facility for treatment within the current statutory deadline. She was joined in testimony by Branch County Prosecutor Zach Stempien, who said the current timeline isn't compatible with the current status of state treatment facilities, which often have monthslong waiting lists or no available beds.
"In my time as a prosecutor, I've seen defendants who have come in who were found incompetent to stand trial, the case was dismissed, only for them to be back in front of the court three, four months later on a new criminal offense and again being found incompetent to stand trial, case dismissed, and we go in this circle where there's really no punishment that we're able to do because the case is always being dismissed against that individual," he said.
Stempien cited an example of an ongoing case in which a defendant charged with attempted murder and stalking was found incompetent to stand trial.
"He was ordered to undergo treatment at the state hospital. After the court sent the order to the state hospital, they got an email back that said, 'OK, we received it. He's on the list, just so you know, he will not be admitted until at least the 366th day of his incarceration.' It took three months for him to be found incompetent," Stempien said. "So essentially nine months after the order was entered would be when he would start treatment. So that would leave us then six months to restore him, or we'd have to dismiss the case."
An added risk in cases like that one, Stempien said, is that if the case is forced to dismissal, prosecutors could refile, but the defendant could not be institutionalized or held in lawcustody during the process of refiling, leaving victims and their families feeling unsafe.
The other unintended consequence of the current setup, Branch County Sheriff Fred Blankenship told committee members, is victims not seeing a resolution to their cases because of frequent dismissals.
"You know why victims are waiting for justice? We have inmates that actually need help that aren't getting the help that they need," Blankenship said. "The mental health system in Michigan is not doing too well right now. The jails have become the de facto mental health hospitals in Michigan."
Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport, sponsored HB 4525 , which would require defendants charged with aggravated domestic violence to wear an electronic monitoring device, also referred to as an ankle monitor or a tether, as a condition of their bail.
Lightner said that while the bill might not be able to prevent domestic violence from happening initially, it could stop the all-too-common occurrence of individuals charged with domestic violence further stalking or abusing their victims.
"We're not naive to the fact that it's not going to prevent violence," Lightner said. "I mean, if there's a will, there's a way, we all know this. However, in the unfortunate cases that (law enforcement) deals with a lot of times, this information is actually used for a murder trial, unfortunately. And location services are really, really good now, usually within a few feet-accuracy level. So, you know, it's just another layer of protection out there and making sure there's justice at the end of the day."
Dave Scheppegrell of Judicial Services Group said modern ankle monitors can hold a charge for nearly a week, offer highly accurate location data and can even be used to talk to the person wearing the device through a speaker. In domestic violence cases, they're often used to pinpoint areas where a defendant cannot go without violating a personal protective order.
"These GPS devices collect location data, generally one point a minute. If there's some kind of a violation or an exclusion area, they can collect them up to every 15 seconds," Scheppegrell said. "That data is transmitted from the ankle monitors over the cellular network. It's encrypted and transmitted to a secure server where … we're able to create areas they're not allowed to go. And we can create multiple zones to warn us before they even get to that area and hopefully warn the victim and potentially notify the offender and tell them that they need to go away from that area so that they don't breach an exclusion zone."
Scheppegrell said several other states already have laws similar to what Lightner is aiming to pass. Tennessee, where every felony domestic violence defendant is outfitted with a tether, is the strictest, and Connecticut runs a similar statewide program that's been able to collect data on the impact of electronic monitoring on preventing domestic violence.
Perhaps the most important thing the monitors can provide, Scheppegrell said, is peace of mind – domestic violence survivors can trust that if their abuser violates a PPO, there will be location data immediately transmitted to law enforcement to back up their account of an incident.
"There's probably nobody in this room that hasn't had a family member impacted by domestic violence," he said. "And if you ever have a family member who is truly fearful of their ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, this bill, this technology helps to provide that additional layer of security which can help them sleep at night and can make sure that it's not just me calling the police, it's the monitoring center calling police."
Lightner's bill was opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Vera Institute of Justice, neither of which testified before the committee. The committee did not vote on either bill.
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