recidivism – Missouri House of Representatives Newsroom

House Members Donate to Nursery at Women’s Prison

Members of the Missouri House of Representatives donated two carloads of clothing, food, toys, and other items for the mothers and babies in the nursery at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center.

Representative Renee Reuter (R-Imperial) organized the drive, and had the opportunity to tour the facility and see how it is allowing incarcerated mothers bond with their babies, and learn the skills they will need in order to thrive and raise their families.

For more information on the nursery program, see our earlier story here.

House votes to Restore Voting Rights to Those on Probation and Parole

The House has voted to restore the right to vote to people who are on probation or parole for a felony conviction.

Representatives Kimberly-Ann Collins, Melanie Stinnett, and Marlon Anderson present legislation to restore voting rights to individuals on probation and parole to a House committee. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Missouri is one of 17 states that withhold the rights of convicted felons to vote until they complete probation or parole. The proposal would restore that right as long as the person’s crime was not related to voting.

The idea has bipartisan support and has been proposed by several legislators going back at least eight years. This latest effort is found in House Bill 2592, sponsored by Representative Melanie Stinnett (R-Springfield).

“Individuals who are living in our communities, working jobs, paying taxes, raising their children and complying with the terms of their probation or parole are still denied the right to vote,” Stinnett said, when introducing the bill in the House. “This bill reflects something I believe at my core: we can be firm, but we can also be fair. We can uphold accountability while also supporting successful reentry.”

Combined with Stinnett’s legislation were House Bills 2834, filed by Representative Kimberly-Ann Collins (D-St. Louis) and 2787, filed by Representative Marlon Anderson (D-St. Louis).

Collins has championed issues related to corrections and criminal justice since she first came to the House in 2021.

“Right now with the Department of Corrections, we have a little bit over 53,000 individuals that are under the supervision of the Missouri Department of Corrections by way of probation and parole, and this bill really does scream to the fundamental rights, the individuals who are paying taxes, have reintegrated into society. It gives that full idea that they should be able to participate in activities such as voting,” Collins said.

Anderson has proposed this change in each of his six years in the legislature. He says he believes in this largely because of what he experienced while working as a probation and parole officer.

“I met a person that was probably about 65 years who did 30 years in [Jefferson City Correctional Center], and he was on life supervision, and given the fact that he was on life supervision, he wasn’t able to vote. This was actually one of the first bills that I filed six years ago about that, to give people the opportunity to get their rights restored. I believe if you have [done] your debt to society, you should have all your rights restored,” Anderson said.

“We have to stop ostracizing those who have been convicted of a crime once they are fully rehabilitated and if they’re good enough to come home and work and pay taxes, they should be able to vote.”

This was the first proposal Stinnett ever filed, and like Anderson, she has been offering it ever since. She said it resulted from an experience she had while knocking on doors during her first campaign.

Representative Melanie Stinnett said it was an encounter with someone she met while running for the House for the first time that prompted her to make this the first proposal she filed. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“I ran into one door where a gentleman was very upset, yelled at me, slammed the door in my face, and it was pretty unsettling because that’s pretty uncommon. I got about six houses down, I was speaking with a woman on her porch, and when I turned around from her porch, this gentleman was waiting on the sidewalk for me. As I got closer to him, I could see he was teary-eyed and he said, ‘I’m so sorry I treated you that way, I shouldn’t have done that, but I can’t vote.’ And it really bothered me, and he told me his story, and this impacted him. And that really planted a seed for me, and it wasn’t until later after I won my election and started talking with people about bills I was planning to file that this bill came up, and people didn’t even have to really pitch me on it. I saw how it impacted him and what it meant to him to have civic engagement in his community, and so as I said, this was the first bill I ever filed.”

Another representative who has filed such legislation, LaKeySha Bosley (D-St. Louis), said for it to be passed out of the House, and early enough in session to give it a realistic chance of clearing the Senate as well, gives her hope.

“This is one of the main reasons that I actually ran for office in the first place,” Bosley said. “This is something that would eliminate that barrier for [those] who are on papers, but regardless they have served their time. This will help them become good stewards of society and engage in their civic duty, and quite frankly, I think that it may make them more engaged.”

Stinnett agreed, “I think when we have people that they’re your neighbors, they’re living next door to you, they’re paying taxes, their kids are going to our schools and, as much as we put a high importance on voting for president, these people can’t vote on school boards.”

“We want them to be invested in those things. We want them to feel a part of the community, and what I think the data shows is that they are then, when they are more engaged in their community, less likely to reoffend.”

The House voted 107-36 to send that legislation to the Senate.

Plan to flatten rates for inmate phone calls endorsed by House panel

A House committee has advanced a proposal to set a flat rate on how much inmates are charged to make phone calls home from the state’s jails and prisons, to promote family communication even during times of incarceration.

*Representatives Aaron McMullen and Michael Davis (Photos: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

“Right now there’s no set standard,” according to Independence Republican Aaron McMullen. “It’s just a patchwork of whatever the county or local [government bids] it at.”

According to data presented to the House Committee on Corrections and Public Institutions, some facilities are charging more than $1 a minute for a phone call, and on average, a 15-minute phone call costs $5.74. One study found that more than one-third of families with incarcerated relatives went into debt due to the costs of keeping in touch with those loved ones.

McMullen and Kansas City Republican Michael Davis are sponsors of a proposal to cap the cost to inmates at $.12 per minute. Davis said their plan for facilities in Missouri is based on how the federal government regulates calls from correctional centers that cross state lines.

“The federal government can regulate interstate calls, but they don’t have the ability to regulate intrastate calls,” Davis explained to the Committee. “What our bill does is, we apply the regulation that the federal government is applying … to interstate calls at the rate for correctional centers, which is $.12.”

The pair said their goal is to keep families in contact even during periods of incarceration. They said children who have limited contact with incarcerated parents have an increased risk of self-harm and suicide, and incarcerated parents who have contact with children are less prone to substance abuse or reoffending, upon release.

“There’s just a lot of good data that suggests that this is the right way to go and reduces recidivism, and increases and protects the families,” McMullen said.

They said many families with incarcerated loved ones are poor, and high phone rates over the course of a year can amount to a third or more of a family’s income at a time when one of its providers is already absent.

A similar bill last year was approved by the committee 9-0. Committee members discussed possibly adding a cap on the cost of inmate email communications to this proposal.

Their proposals are House Bill 1679 (Davis) and House Bill 2169 (McMullen).

New Corrections head to House budget makers: hold off on talk of a new prison

Some state lawmakers have questioned whether Missouri will soon need another prison, but the prison system’s new director hopes to keep that from being necessary.

Missouri Department of Corrections Director Ann Precythe testifies to the House Budget Committee February 14, 2017. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick told his committee and Corrections Department leaders this week that he’s concerned about the overall trend in recent years, of an increase in Missouri prisons’ populations. Department staff said the state’s prisons are operating at or near capacity, with around 32,000 inmates.

Fitzpatrick referenced a recent case in which a man who molested and exposed himself to his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter was sentenced to only a few months in prison.

“I think a lot of that is pressures on judges and prosecutors, knowing that we’re at capacity,” said Fitzpatrick. “I don’t want child molesters getting four months, or people who are exposing themselves and doing things like that to children getting out of jail like that.”

Despite the state’s current budget picture, in which legislators are looking for ways to cut and are expected to seek little or no new spending, Fitzpatrick told the committee, “Seems to me that we’re on a collision course with a new prison, and that may be something that we have to look at. I’d rather see if we could do something to make it where we didn’t need as many prisons, but if it comes down to giving child molesters four months in jail or building a new prison, I am in favor of building a new prison.”

The Department’s new director, Ann Precythe, told lawmakers her preference would be to keep the state from needing more prison space.

House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“When I saw the need to expand and increase beds, my initial reaction is, ‘Wait a minute, we need to review what’s happening.’” said Precythe. “Where are we getting the best bang for the buck? And that’s going to be keeping people in the community, and then what are we doing to keep them in the community and help them not reoffend.”

Precythe said she wants the Department to focus on being more efficient financially, and on finding ways to reduce recidivism.

“My commitment to this committee is not to come back to you and say we need to build more prison beds. I think we need to be criminal justice smart on crime and not just pay for crime, and there are ways to do that,” said Precythe.

Precythe, who was chosen in December by Governor Eric Greitens to head the department, said she’s not ready to discuss what policy changes she might ask for in addressing recidivism and prisons’ populations. She expects to be able to tell lawmakers by next year what the future of the state’s prison system looks like.

Precythe said the age of Missouri’s prisons must also be accounted for when considering whether additions are necessary. The state’s oldest, Algoa Correctional Center near Jefferson City, is a minimum-security facility that became a prison in 1932. The new director has toured it and said it appears to be meeting what Missouri needs of it.