2013 Governor's State of the State speeches: on Crime
Maggie Hassan:
15 more state troopers on state roads
Public safety is truly our most important responsibility, so we need to make sure we maintain the basic public safety infrastructure that allows local officials to keep us safe. Over the last few years, we have taken 30 state troopers off of our roads
and out of our communities. People in our most rural areas should not have to wait more than an hour for the nearest state trooper to arrive. To improve the safety of our people, this budget puts 15 more troopers on the road.
Source: 2013 State of the State N.H. Budget Address
Feb 14, 2013
Maggie Hassan:
Provide capital funds to build a new women's prison
We must ensure that our corrections system is as effective as possible, with modern facilities to keep dangerous criminals off of our streets and programs to prevent those who serve their punishment from returning to a life of crime.
For too long, our corrections system has woefully neglected women. Like our men's prison, our women's prison must offer facilities that can provide the programs that help individuals safely move back into society when they have served their sentences.
To ensure justice and to improve our public safety, this capital budget includes the funds necessary to build a new women's prison.
It is time; we cannot delay this any longer.
Source: 2013 State of the State N.H. Budget Address
Feb 14, 2013
Earl Ray Tomblin:
Texting while driving now illegal; add phoning & drugs
Texting while driving is now illegal and on July 1st talking on a hand-held phone while driving will be against the law. We've kept our promise to make eliminating substance abuse a top priority--and now--laws are on the books to shutdown "pill mills"
and stop "doctor shopping." We listened to our communities and invested in drug treatment programs--and we told those who need free job training that they must pass a drug test--first. We must continue to support our law enforcement officers and give
them the tools they need to protect us, our families, and our communities. We know that driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious problem, but so is driving under the influence of drugs. Tonight, I'm proposing legislation to make it
clear that officers have implied consent upon reasonable cause. When drivers who are under the influence of drugs are pulled over, they can be properly identified, tested, and removed from our roadways.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to W.V. Legislature
Feb 13, 2013
Paul LePage:
Victim's Compensation Fund to address domestic violence
Last session, we put politics aside and worked together to address domestic violence in Maine. We amended Maine's bail code, ensuring that judges determine the bail for domestic violence offenses. We required abusers to pay into the Victim's Compensation
Fund. This provides financial resources to the victims and families of domestic abuse.A number of other bills dealing with stalking and risk assessment were passed, and executive orders signed. We sponsored a Governor's Bill supporting our
Batterers' Intervention Programs.
Ending domestic violence requires abusers to change--batterers' intervention is an important step in that direction. As a youth, domestic violence hit close to home for me. I was not a spouse, I was a child.
It is important that we broaden the discussion about these heinous crimes. Domestic violence is a crime that affects families. Family violence is domestic violence, and we need to focus on protecting all women and children.
Source: 2013 State of the State speech to Maine Legislature
Feb 5, 2013
Tom Corbett:
Justice Reinvestment: eligible offenders out of system
While prisons are necessary, they are not necessarily the only answer. Our Justice Reinvestment Initiative gets eligible offenders out of the system and works to re-introduce them as productive citizens. It also will save us $139 million. This money is
being moved to the "front end" of the justice system--victim services, local policing, county-based offender treatment, improved probation services. We need to be tough on crime and smarter about preventing it. Justice Reinvestment does both.
Source: 2013 State of the State speech to Pennsylvania Legislature
Feb 5, 2013
Tom Corbett:
290 new state troopers plus 90 new civilian dispatchers
One of the greatest challenges we continue to confront as Pennsylvanians is the threat of crime. Public safety remains a top priority in my administration. Without safety society cannot long endure.That is why, once again,
I have announced plans for new cadet classes at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy. Over the next fiscal year we plan to train 290 new state troopers to protect and defend our citizens and our rule of law.
We will also add 90 new civilian dispatchers, freeing our troopers to get out on the roads and into our communities, where they are most needed.
Much of that expansion has been made possible by enhancing our justice system. It costs $34,000 a year to keep a man or woman in prison. That is $34,000 that doesn't reach our schools, pave our roads, or care for our poor.
Source: 2013 State of the State speech to Pennsylvania Legislature
Feb 5, 2013
Jerry Brown:
Curb prison spending through an historic realignment
You, the California legislature, did it. You cast difficult votes to cut billions from the state budget. You curbed prison spending through an historic realignment and you reformed and reduced the state's long term pension liabilities.
Then, the citizens of California, using their inherent political power under the Constitution, finished the task. They embraced the new taxes of Proposition 30 by a healthy margin of 55% to 44%.
Source: 2013 State of the State address to California Legislature
Jan 24, 2013
Nathan Deal:
Accountability courts to avoid 5,000 prison beds
In Public Safety, let's capitalize on the success that we have already had in criminal justice reform, in which, last year, we crafted legislation that saves both lives and taxpayer dollars.
Through increased use of accountability courts--drug, DUI, mental health and veteran courts--along with other measures, this state will avoid the need to add 5,000 prison beds over five years and save taxpayers at least $264 million; these measures
simultaneously decrease the number of offenders who end up back in jail after being released--and create productive, taxpaying citizens rather than more dangerous criminals. And we have continued funding for accountability courts by allocating
$11.6 million toward that purpose in my budget proposal.This year we will continue our work by bringing legislation designed to produce better results with juvenile offenders and divert them from the adult system.
Source: 2013 State of the State address to Georgia Legislature
Jan 17, 2013
Jan Brewer:
Reduce crime by punishing criminals
Crime and violence in Arizona continue to trend downward.
Arizonans have reduced crime by punishing criminals, and not by infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Arizona Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
John Kitzhaber:
Spend $600M on education now instead of on prisons later
In corrections, cost reduction is both needed and possible. The relentless growth in the Department of Corrections is one of the major reasons we cannot adequately invest in education; or in community corrections & other proven crime prevention measures
at the local level. It cost $10,000 a year to keep a child in school but $30,000 a year to keep someone in prison. Our prison forecast predicts the need to build 2,300 new beds over the next decade at a cost of $600 million--and that most of those
beds will be occupied by non-violent offenders. And the fact is that this $600 million--if spent on public education--would keep hundreds of people out of the criminal justice system in the first place.
The politics around public safety reform are
often difficult--the fear of being labeled "soft on crime." But if we are unwilling act on this issue we will, by default, be choosing prisons over schools and condemning untold numbers of today's students to a future in our system of corrections.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
Andrew Cuomo:
End "stop and frisk"; it stigmatizes young black males
We are one New York, and as one New York we will not tolerate discrimination. There is a challenge posed by the "stop and frisk" police policies. Roughly 50,000 arrests in New York City for marijuana possession, more than any other possession.
Of those 50,000 arrests, 82% are black and Hispanic. Of the 82% that are black and Hispanic, 69% are under the age of 30 years old. These are young, predominately black and Hispanic males. These arrests stigmatize, they criminalize, they create a
permanent record. It's not fair. It's not right. It must end. And it must end now. The problem is the disconnect because marijuana on a person is a violation, marijuana in public view is a misdemeanor. There must be parity. Decriminalize the public view
with 15 grams or less so there is fairness and parity in the system and we stop stigmatizing these people, making it harder to find a job, making it harder to get into to school, making it harder to turn their lives around at a very young age.
Source: 2013 State of the State Speech to NY Legislature
Jan 9, 2013
Andrew Cuomo:
Videotape all interrogations for serious crimes
The State must do more to ensure the integrity and reliability of evidence pertaining to confessions. False confessions have been shown to contribute to wrongful convictions. In order to help prevent wrongful convictions based on
false confessions, as well as to protect law enforcement from erroneous allegations of coercion, interrogations of persons arrested for serious offenses such as homicide, kidnapping and certain sex offenses should be recorded on video.
It is time that New York joined the 18 states and District of Columbia that have, either legislatively or by judicial action, implemented this practice.
Governor Cuomo will propose that videotaped interrogations be required for suspects in serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping and violent sex crimes.
Source: NY Rising 2013 State of the State booklet
Jan 9, 2013
Bob McDonnell:
Tough punishment and no parole works
Tough punishment and no parole works
Our communities continue to get safer. Our violent crime rate is now lower than any time since the early 1960's, the lowest in the South and the 5th lowest in the nation. Our property crime rate is the lowest in the South and the 8th lowest nationally.
Tough punishment and no parole works
drunk driving and internet crime. Last year we quietly passed the most significant reforms in over a decade to punish repeat drug dealers and child sex offenders.Second, we've dramatically improved our prisoner re-entry system.
Source: 2013 Virginia State of the State address
Jan 9, 2013
Dennis Daugaard:
Achieved Level 4 certification for Juvenile Corrections
Our Department of Corrections is doing good work. It has achieved Level 4 certification by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators. In 2011, we were the first state in the nation to do this, and last year we maintained this certification
for a second year. I have required our juvenile facilities to be certified by these national, performance-based measures, and I'm proud that DOC has reached this high standard.
Source: South Dakota 2013 State of the State Address
Jan 8, 2013
Dennis Daugaard:
Justice reinvestment: focuses resources on proven tools
This past July, we formed the Criminal Justice Initiative Work Group. Top criminal justice leaders and stakeholders from both parties and all three branches of government, as well as law enforcement, treatment providers, prosecutors, and defense
attorneys all had seats at the table. The charge to this work group could not have been simpler:- Improve public safety.
- Hold offenders more accountable.
- Give us a better return on our criminal justice spending.
The workgroup did not have to reinvent the wheel. In more than 20 states, many of them very conservative states like TX, KY, and SC, have undertaken what they call "justice reinvestment." Justice reinvestment focuses resources on criminal justice tools
that are proven to work. It focuses resources on evidence-based practices--not based on antidotes, not based on intuition, not based on what we think will work, but which has been proven to work elsewhere, and the evidence shows works.
Source: South Dakota 2013 State of the State Address
Jan 8, 2013
Jack Dalrymple:
More state troopers, more parole and probation programs
In the area of law enforcement we have moved 13 additional state troopers to oil country in the current biennium. But we need to do more to support the county sheriffs, the police chiefs, and the state's attorneys in rapid growth areas.
That is why I have recommended 15 additional troopers for the North Dakota Highway Patrol, and I've supported increased budgets for the courts and the parole and probation programs.
But the greatest assistance we can provide to counties and cities in western North Dakota is to let them keep a larger share of the oil revenues and help them financially as they increase the number of sheriff's deputies and
police officers in their communities. Having strong local law enforcement is what will give people peace of mind, and insure that we remain one of the safest states in the nation.
Source: North Dakota 2013 State of the State Address
Jan 8, 2013
Butch Otter:
$70M for secure mental health facility at state prison
More than a quarter of the inmates in our State prison system have some level of mental illness. Many can be housed safely within appropriate settings in our existing facilities. But others need higher levels of care, more treatment and more
intensive intervention for their own safety and that of others. That's why I support the Department of Correction's request for permission to issue $70 million in bonds for a 579-bed secure mental health facility at the prison complex south of Boise.
Source: Idaho 2013 State of the State Address
Jan 7, 2013
Page last updated: Dec 05, 2018