The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Rell said she will also ask the General Assembly to pass legislation to classify burglaries committed at nighttime or at an occupied residence as violent crimes, a move that would require anyone convicted of such offenses to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

Under current law, inmates convicted on burglary charges are usually required to serve 50 percent of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole.

Rell "believes absolutely that we should take (this issue) up immediately" in the General Assembly's current special session, said the governor's chief spokesman, Chris Cooper.

Cooper said Rell would only support legislative action in a special session if lawmakers can consider the matter "in a deliberative way" with full public hearings to allow law enforcement experts and the public to offer their opinions. "The governor doesn't want to make changes just out of reaction," Cooper said.

The General Assembly is conducting a special legislative session devoted to finishing work on a state bond package for the next two years. The legislature's leadership could effectively expand the scope of that special session to include Rell's proposal and that of GOP lawmakers who want to toughen state laws regarding repeat offenders.

However, the top leaders of the legislature's Democratic majority said Tuesday they have asked the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee to review the state parole process and make recommendations for reform in time for the 2008 session.

"We should be thorough in our examination, and the work of those who review our parole and corrections system should be taken up by the legislature when their recommendations are complete later this year or in the next regular session," said the state Senate's top Democratic leader, Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn.

Rell last week appointed a task force to review sentencing and parole issues arising out of the Cheshire killings.

Burglary parolees Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, and Steven Hayes, 44, have been charged with capital felonies for allegedly invading the home of Dr. William Petit Jr. and killing his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and their two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. Dr. Petit also was savagely beaten in the July 23 attack.

Parole officials have said they didn't have all the police reports and court sentencing information they should have received before the two men were released on parole in May. Some lawmakers also have questioned why the two men weren't originally charged as serious repeat offenders, which would have kept them in prison longer.

"Burglary has long been considered a general nonviolent offense," Rell said in a statement. "But those who commit these crimes at night or when a home is occupied are far more likely to encounter a homeowner ‹ meaning the chances of violence are increased exponentially."

"These offenders warrant a much higher level of scrutiny before parole and much closer monitoring after release," Rell said.

The governor said that she has immediately ordered anyone convicted of second-degree burglary to get a full hearing by the Board of Pardon and Parole. Hayes and Komisarjevsky were released after less formal administrative reviews.

Also, state officials said they are taking steps to ensure that all relevant police and court records of convicted individuals will be made available to the parole board, as is required by law.

Gregory B. Hladky can be contacted at ghladky@nhregister.com or (860) 524-0719.

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New Haven Register
Changes in '3 strikes law' urged in General Assembly
Luther Turmelle, North Bureau Chief
08/01/2007

Republican legislative leaders are calling for a special session of the General Assembly to toughen penalties for repeat offenders, including changes to the state's "three strikes"

Tuesday's request for a special session by Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, comes as an online petition started by a Cheshire woman regarding the law has garnered about 4,600 signatures in less than a week.

Interest in toughening criminal penalties for repeat offenders rose in the wake of last week's home invasion in Cheshire that ended in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, and the beating of Dr. William A. Petit Jr.

Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, with extensive criminal records, have been charged with six capital felonies each, which could bring the death penalty.

"The Petit home invasion and murders exposed Connecticut's poor record when it comes to keeping career criminals locked up," McKinney said. "In fact, we're learning that under existing Connecticut law, dangerous criminals are routinely granted early parole, even after committing the same unconscionable crimes over and over again. We need to fix the system now."

Whether a special session will be called will be determined by the leaders of the legislature's Democratic majority: Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn and House Speaker James A. Amann of Milford.

Amann said that while he appreciates the concerns that McKinney and other Republican leaders have, "We can't just jump and be reactionary; we have to be deliberate."

To that end, Amann said he is meeting today with officials from the state Department of Correction, the parole board and others to determine why the suspects were paroled.

"We certainly want to find out what went wrong, what factors there were," Amann said.

Robert Farr, chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, said last week parole officials did not have all the police reports and judicial sentencing statements on the two suspects before paroling Komisarjevsky and Hayes earlier this year.

State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, will join today's meeting in his role as House chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Lawlor said the idea that creating additional or tougher laws will make Connecticut residents safer is misguided.

"It's a little fraudulent to say if we have more laws it won't happen again," Lawlor said. "Under the laws that we already have on the books, these guys could have been sentenced to 100 years (before the home-invasion incident).

"Prosecutors could have put these guys away for a very long time and they didn't; putting another option out there doesn't mean they're going to use it."

Among the reforms Senate Republicans want to consider is a new three strikes law that would impose a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life on the most serious repeat criminals.

Hayes' record dates to 1980, according to information presented in court. He has nearly three dozen convictions on charges including larceny, burglary, passing bad checks, possession of marijuana and theft of a handgun.

Komisarjevsky has 18 burglary and larceny convictions dating from to 2002.

The proposal is being advocated by state Sen. Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, whose district includes Cheshire. He said Connecticut's three strikes law is permissive because it allows for longer sentences when a court finds that "extended incarceration will best serve the public interest."

"When it is obvious, as it is today, that the laws we have do not work, then we have a moral obligation to act quickly to correct that situation," he said.

Lawlor contends that creating a new three strikes law would overwhelm the courts and prison system.

But state Sen. Leonard Fasano, R-North Haven, said nothing "should stand in the way of keeping Connecticut residents safe," even if it means adding to or building prisons.

"We're not going to let criminals out just because we don't have bed space," Fasano said. "Clearly, there was a breakdown in communications in this case, but I don't want to sit here and figure out where the holes are in the system. The easiest way to dam the dike is to put a brick wall up."

Republican lawmakers cited overwhelming public interest in changing the law as their reason for seeking a special session.

And the online petition launched July 25, go petition.com, is an example of the groundswell of support for changes in the laws. The petition was started two days after the Petits were killed, and by Tuesday afternoon about 100 people an hour were adding their names to it.

The Web site lists Jessica Ryan of Cheshire as the author of the petition.

Luther Turmelle can be reached at lturmelle@nhregister.com or 789-5706.

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After home invasion, tougher rules for paroled burglars Associated Press August 1, 2007

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - Burglars convicted of breaking into occupied homes will get random visits from parole officers under a new policy announced Tuesday by Gov. M. Jodi Rell in the wake of a deadly Cheshire home invasion.

That crime, which left a mother and her two daughters dead, could also prompt lawmakers to order longer mandatory sentences for offenders who break into homes at night or while residents are inside.

Rell said she also will ask the General Assembly to reclassify such offenses as violent crimes, meaning offenders must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before parole is a possibility.

State officials said one suspect in the Cheshire burglary, killings and arson, Joshua Komisarjevsky of Cheshire, served nearly 60 percent of his sentence for a string of nighttime burglaries. The other, Steven Hayes of Winsted, served 80 percent of his sentence on burglary charges.

Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislature's Judiciary Committee said he supports reclassifying second-degree burglary. But he said the state Board of Pardons and Parole has the ability now to forgo granting parole until someone serves at least 85 percent of their sentence.

"This does not need to wait for the legislature to come in," Lawlor said. "This can be done today, administratively."

Starting immediately, Rell said, parole officers will make random, unannounced checks to the homes and workplaces of 38 state residents who are currently on parole for committing nighttime burglaries or breaking into occupied homes. They will also be subject to increased electronic monitoring.

Both suspects in the Cheshire case had lengthy arrest records that included a string of burglaries, but they had been classified as nonviolent offenders because they did not hurt anyone during the crimes. Komisarjevsky, 26, and Hayes, 44, remained jailed on $15 million bond each.

Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against the two, who are charged with several counts of capital felony, sexual assault, kidnapping, assault, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children.

Authorities say Komisarjevsky and Hayes broke into the Petit home in Cheshire early July 23, held the family hostage for several hours, then forced 48-year-old Jennifer Hawke-Petit to withdraw money at a local bank.

Suspicious bank employees notified police, who caught the suspects as they tried to flee after allegedly setting the house on fire.

Hawke-Petit was strangled and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, died of smoke inhalation, according to autopsy results and police. The lone survivor, Dr. William Petit Jr., was badly beaten but managed to escape.

State officials have since asked why both men were deemed nonviolent when Hayes had previous firearms convictions and Komisarjevsky had purchased night-vision goggles so he could burglarize occupied houses at night.

When Komisarjevsky was last sentenced in 2002, prosecutor Ronald Dearstyne referred to him at a hearing as "a dangerous person who poses a danger to the people of Connecticut," according to a written transcript.

That year, Komisarjevsky told authorities that he wore latex gloves and carried a kit that included the night vision equipment and knives to cut through screens. But he insisted he did not want to run into the homeowners.

"I always avoided contact with people," Komisarjevsky told police.

William Gerace, the suspect's attorney in 2002, acknowledged that breaking into a house at nighttime "is a bizarre and erratic thing to do." But he said his client had a history of psychological and drug abuse problems.

In the court transcript, Dearstyne stressed the emotional toll the crime takes on victims. Many of the homeowners that Komisarjevsky burglarized between July 2001 and February 2002, installed alarm systems because they feared another break-in.

"If we can't go home at night and feel safe in our home and then go to bed at night and sleep in our own home and feel safe, then where can we feel safe, Judge," Dearstyne asked at a Dec. 20, 2002 sentencing hearing.

"And that's the end net result of what this defendant did to those people, not so much what he took from them financially, it's what he took from them emotionally," he added.

Some lawmakers say they want a special General Assembly session to address the issue of parole and whether Connecticut needs a tougher so-called "three strikes" law, which typically require 25-year-to-life sentences for repeat serious offenders.

"I think what we learned from this tragedy is right now, our law is not tight enough and there is the possibility of release for certain crimes that should not allow release," said state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield.

The legislature's Democratic leaders have called on the co-chairmen of the Judiciary Committee to review the Petit case and make recommendations for possible legislation in the 2008 session.

Other issues that might be reviewed include: whether people are being released early to ease prison overcrowding; whether certain cases should go to trial rather than being resolved with plea bargains; and whether special circumstances in nonviolent crimes should raise concerns about the perpetrators' potential for future violence.

"There's too much plea bargaining," Lawlor said. "In cases like this, when you could take cases to trial and see the special circumstances, you could lock them up for a lot longer."

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Associated Press Writer Susan Haigh in Hartford contributed to this report.