Legislative report: Gang legislation costly


This is the latest in an occasional series of articles contributed by state Sen. Doug Berger about legislative issues of concern to Vance County.

The state budget includes $2 million to provide funds for local efforts to prevent the formation and growth of gangs. The budget also includes a specific grant of $25,000 to Gateway and the Vance County Coalition Against Violence to address gang violence in Henderson.

Unfortunately, the General Assembly did not pass the overall legislation aimed at toughening the laws aimed at curbing the formation of gangs. After Senate members were released to go home after the lottery vote, the House passed H.B. 50, the Street Gang Prevention Act, which the Senate will consider during next year’s short session.

One of the key provisions of the legislation would make it difficult for gang members charged with a gang-related criminal violation to be able to obtain a pretrial release. If there is a reasonable belief that the crime a gang member is charged with occurred while the person already was on pretrial release or if he previously was convicted of a gang-related crime, the court could choose not to release the charged gang member.

One of the most common complaints I have heard by our citizens is that as soon as a known gang member with a record is charged with a new violation, he is released quickly and is back on the street committing other crimes.

I co-sponsored an identical bill in the Senate, S.B. 733, which supporters were able to get out of our Judiciary 2 Committee, only to see it stall in the full Appropriations Committee because the legislative staff had not prepared a fiscal note for consideration in a timely manner. Whenever legislation is prepared that will involve the expenditure of tax dollars, a fiscal impact statement must be prepared and reviewed.

The impact statement reviewed by the House estimated that our legislation would cost more than $80 million over the next six years to implement.

In fiscal 2006-07 alone, it would cost more than $45 million in construction and operating costs to imprison an estimated 532 gang members. Those numbers are sobering and do show the critical policy choices we face in deciding how much money should be expended in punitive measures vs. preventive measures.

I believe we need to spend more money on preventive measures, but how much more and how much relative to the costs of imprisonment are difficult questions to answer. What do you think?