I am pleased to announce that HB 5 – a bill I was proud to sponsor alongside my good friend Rep. Val Longhurst – passed both chambers and is set to be signed by Gov. Carney in the near future

HB 5 is an important measure within our criminal justice reform package that was at the top of our agenda this past month. This piece of legislation works to make our justice system less crowded and more fair by returning sentencing discretion to our judges.

Currently, some statues require sentence stacking for people who have been convicted of more than one offense. In the worst cases, these outdated requirements tie the hands of our judges and can lead to long stays in prison for relatively minor crimes.

In 2019, we know that we can do better than that.

Once signed by Gov. Carney, HB 5 will replace those lines of code with newer, more flexible language that allows judges to use their discretion in sentencing to reach a result that fits the crime committed. More specifically, that means that judges can order jail sentences to be served all at once (concurrently) or one at a time (consecutively). This discretion will be extended for most nonviolent crimes but will not be offered in the most serious cases of assault and other violent crimes.