The Public Safety Subcommittee #2 advanced a sweeping package of criminal justice reform bills — including prison visitation standards, reentry programming, pregnant incarcerated persons' housing, and a prison education framework — while splitting 5-2 on the most contested visitation bills (HB 173 and HB 1246) and tabling a fines grace period bill (HB 1142) after the Supreme Court's OES warned it could not be implemented as written.
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Fatima Wahid of Survivors for Justice Reform argued HB 1246 'actually codifies a system of state sanctioned segregation by tying visitation phases to good conduct allowance levels and by incentivizing basic human needs like clothing, food, and the right to touch as rewards for administrative compliance,' calling it 'institutionalized cruelty.' Delegate Bennett Parker countered that HB 1246 is the only bill addressing physical contact such as hugs. Delegate Siebold pressed Delegate Glass on how good behavior is measured in the bill; Glass responded it is not measured in the bill and is already defined in code.
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“A child does not understand GCA levels. They only see that their parent is being singled out, marked by different clothing, and denied the same physical affection allowed to the family at the next table. Using the bond between a parent and a child as a bargaining chip is not enhancement. It is institutionalized cruelty.”
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Sign in to subscribeOf the committee on public safety. Formally, the public safety subcommittee on the public safety committee shall come to order and the committee will go at ease. To order. The committee will come back to order. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. First we will have delegate Faggins with his. With his. Actually, if we could first have a motion to take House Bill 776 from Delegate Thornton. Bye for the day. Motion's been made and properly seconded to take by for the day House Bill 776. Delegate Thornton. So if you're here for 776, that is by for the day without objection. Now delegate Thornton Fagin. We have House Bill 472. Good morning. Hey, good morning. Chair and subcommittee members. First I'd like to move the substitute. Second Motion made improperly seconded without objection. The substitute is before us. Delegate seconds. Thank you. Chair and and committee members. The substitute strengthens the bills implementation by assigning ownership of the battery storage to a utility, providing state corporation commission oversight and allowing cost recovery through existing regulatory pathways and request that the department of emergency management work in consultation with department of energy. When hurricanes, ice storms…
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