According to the article, “The new law increases suspension periods from 90 to 180 days to six to 15 months, depending on how many previous offenses the driver has.”

Click here to view the full article!

Since the bill went into effect in February of 2009, DUI arrests have increased by 20%. This increase will cause the word to spread about the state’s strict drunk-driving policies, and allow us to have safer roads for our families.

But it’s not all about hauling off offenders to jail in handcuffs. Traffic fatalities have plummeted in recent months, and this new DUI bill played a large part in making that happen. There are scores of individuals alive and well today, due to the fact that there are less drunk people behind a wheel.

The article states, “As of last week, there were 89 fewer crashes and 99 fewer people killed in road accidents year to date compared with the same period last year. Deaths are also down significantly during the 100 Deadly Days of Summer, a time period during which law enforcement officials say a large number of people die in road accidents.”

As a legislator, it is truly great to be part of a bill that works so effectively and helps save the lives of fellow South Carolinians. This law will hopefully continue to protect us on the roads and provide a safer environment for us all.

If I can ever be of any help to you or if you have questions about state government, please email me at murrell@murrellsmith.com

Sincerely,
Murrell Smith
SC Representative

Sincerely,

Murrell Smith
SC Representative

That’s why I spent the past two years heading up a committee and drafting a plan to overhaul our criminal sentencing laws.  Going into the project, I knew that we had to find a way to keep violent criminals in prison while saving a large amount of tax dollars.  I’m overjoyed to say that we accomplished our mission and our plan has become a model for states across the country.  I’ve even been invited by the National Conference of State Legislatures to serve on a national committee charged with implementing similar recommendations for other states.
 

Here’s a great write up from The Economist:

“On June 2nd South Carolina joined a growing number of states trying  to bring their growing prison population—and the associated costs—to heel by changing the way criminals are sentenced. The bill that Mark Sanford, South Carolina’s Republican governor, signed into law that day, after it sailed through the Republican-dominated legislature,
allows non-violent drug offenders to be eligible for parole or probation rather than automatically being sent to prison. It requires drug offenders to pay a fine, which then goes to drug-treatment programmes.

It also improves post-release and parole supervision, easing prisoners’ transition from incarceration to the working world and ensuring that fewer prisoners will be locked up for non-criminal breaches of their parole. At the same time, it increases penalties for some violent offences. The Pew Center on the States, which helped the state’s sentencing-reform commission analyse data, believes this bill will save the state almost $250m in prison building and operating costs over the next five years.”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

During this tough economic time, we have to find innovative and creative ways to accomplish our state’s core missions while saving every penny possible.

If I can ever be of any help to you or if you have questions about state government, please email me at murrell@murrellsmith.com.

Sincerely,

Murrell Smith
SC Representative

On the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina’s capital, lies a rolling swathe of farmland where cattle graze, tomatoes sprout and razor wire glints in the afternoon sun. This well-tended campus is home to seven of the state’s 28 prisons, including both Broad River, where inmates sentenced to die are lethally injected or electrocuted, and Campbell, which houses prisoners on work-release, who spend their days at fast-food restaurants or laundries and return to their “dorms” to sleep.

Part of their earnings goes to repay the cost of jailing them. And it is a cost: from 1983 to 2008 spending on the state’s prisons increased more than sixfold, as its prison population rose from just over 9,000 to almost 25,000. That rise had several causes, among them the greater number of people imprisoned for non-violent crimes and the heavier sentences that came with new laws laying down mandatory minimum terms.

Another factor was the decision of South Carolina, like many states, to adopt statutes in the mid-1990s that said certain criminals had to serve 85% of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Those serving such sentences now account for 42% of the state’s total prison population. Not only do these inmates clog the system, they are also less likely to take advantage of vocational training or education in prison, and more likely to be put back behind bars after their release.

On June 2nd South Carolina joined a growing number of states trying to bring their growing prison population—and the associated costs—to heel by changing the way criminals are sentenced. The bill that Mark Sanford, South Carolina’s Republican governor, signed into law that day, after it sailed through the Republican-dominated legislature, allows non-violent drug offenders to be eligible for parole or probation rather than automatically being sent to prison. It requires drug offenders to pay a fine, which then goes to drug-treatment programmes.

It also improves post-release and parole supervision, easing prisoners’ transition from incarceration to the working world and ensuring that fewer prisoners will be locked up for non-criminal breaches of their parole. At the same time, it increases penalties for some violent offences. The Pew Center on the States, which helped the state’s sentencing-reform commission analyse data, believes this bill will save the state almost $250m in prison building and operating costs over the next five years.

Similar sentencing reform has taken hold in some unlikely places. Hang-’em-high Texas, by financing drug-treatment and mental-health services and improving post-release supervision, has dramatically slowed the rate of growth of its prison population. Mississippi has also avoided an expected increase by making non-violent prisoners eligible for parole after serving 25% rather than 85% of their time. The Pew Center is helping to draw up reforms in 22 states; the two most recent recruits are Arkansas and Indiana.

“The Economist”

July 22, 2010

As we enter the dog days of summer and endure the brutal midlands heat, I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about the status of South Carolina. I also wanted to share this article with you that ran in the Sumter Item this past weekend.

We are all facing tougher times right now and this recession has gone on a lot longer than many of us expected.  I’d like to say that these developments came out of nowhere but the truth is that we brought this on ourselves. And by “we,” I mean your elected officials at both the state and federal level. As this article points out “it’s not a good time to be an incumbent.” The article is talking more about congressional incumbents, but the same is true for your local incumbents and for the same exact reason – irresponsibility.

I’ve been working for smarter reforms for years, but too many of my colleagues put their faith in government instead of people.  That big mistake caused excessive government growth, waste and irresponsible spending.  I’m disappointed, but not surprised.  I, along with my conservative teammates, tried warning our legislative colleagues but they acted like happy pigs at a trough.

As I said in my last email, there is a silver lining. This year’s primary sent shock waves through the State House. By electing a strong conservative reformer like Nikki Haley as our gubernatorial nominee, you sent a stern signal to the politicians – straighten up or get out.

During the last week of session, we watched as representative after representative took the podium to say their goodbyes after South Carolina voters tossed them out.  You’re ready for change and so am I. For starters, there is no reason that we shouldn’t finally pass spending caps plan I’ve cosponsored. A simple cap at the rate of population + inflation makes sense to everyone. Excess money can be put into a reserve fund to make up for shortfalls like we are now seeing. Government shouldn’t be spending more than that and its high time we get the job done.

Zero-based budgeting is the best way to cut waste in government. Currently we look at the past year’s budget for each agency and analyze whether or not to add or cut from that number. Up until this economic decline, we nearly always added.  What we should do is implement zero-based budgeting where the slate is wiped clean every year. We look at each agency from the bottom up, decide upon their core function and then allocate funding to meet that function.

Spending reforms are the first step in reversing our economy and producing a strong economic environment that can foster job growth. If I can be of any assistance to you, please email me at murrell@murrellsmith.com.

Sincerely,

Murrell Smith
State Representative

* Reforming the Endowed Chairs program to help shift its focus to job creation and allow private sector investment to lead public sector investment;
* Removing the scores of special jobs tax credits that have been legislated over the years, making the state’s credits based purely on economic criteria;
* Providing relief to manufacturing property taxpayers, who currently pay the highest rate in the nation;
* Broadening and modernizing the outdated Economic Impact Zone provisions, enacted in 1995 in response to federal base closures;
* And requiring greater transparency in the reporting process for utility tax credits.

“This bill is a significant step in the right direction,” Gov. Sanford said. “For the last seven and a half years this administration has sought to move the state away from what has been a ‘government knows best’ model of economic development, whereby government is unwisely expected to lead the way in attracting – or indeed generating – private investment. This bill represents a noteworthy change from that approach by reforming the state’s economic development tools in a way that recognizes the folly of trying to ‘steer’ the market or guess the direction it may take in the future. Specifically, this bill will cut tax rates for many industrial buildings – putting them on par from a property tax standpoint with other manufacturers in order to level the playing field and increase competitiveness. The legislation also dismantles a piecemeal tax credit that only benefited certain counties – a practice we’ve long considered unfair. As well, this bill depoliticizes the way counties are designated as ‘worse off’ or ‘better off’ economically – which effectively stifled economic development across the state. In fact, important pieces of this legislation mirror recommendations from a Department of Commerce study on state incentives done in early 2007. For these and a number of other overdue changes, I’d thank Speaker Bobby Harrell for his leadership in getting this bill through the House, as well as Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor for his work in advocating a better bill.”

“This bill is a major step for South Carolina as we will now see our business recruitment and expansion programs based exclusively on economic criteria rather than politics,” Secretary Joe Taylor said. “Outdated programs that were only available for some areas have been modernized and will now be available statewide. This bill does not pick winners and losers but instead levels the playing field for companies who are looking at South Carolina to locate or expand their operations. I especially want to thank the Speaker and many Senators who saw the positive outcome of this bill and worked so hard to get it passed.”

H.4478 comes on the heels of an impressive number of economic development successes in South Carolina. Over the last several months there have been five 1,000-plus jobs announcements, and last year South Carolina led the entire Southeast in job recruitment.

Legislators sense that you’re fed up and they see that they can’t just keep doing business as usual.  The General Assembly is finally starting to look at common sense tax reform, smarter budgeting practices and the common-sense conservative reforms that can stop this from happening again. Here are just a few examples:

This year we passed a spending caps bill to stop legislators from wasting our money on pointless projects. Money that goes over the cap will be put into a reserve fund that we can tap when we face sharp budget declines. This will help us plain out spending and stop the boom and bust trends that force us to lay off teachers and law enforcement officers.

Just a few weeks ago we finally passed the on-the-record voting bill that stops legislators from voting for massive spending projects in secret.

We passed a sweeping earmark reform rule that makes legislators put their names on the spending projects they used to secretively insert into the budget.

We’ve passed numerous government restructuring bills to make government more efficient and accountable, including Employment Security Commission restructuring.

We passed a budget without tax or fee increases.

Folks, we’re facing some seriously tough times and in the next two years it’s only going to get worse. I don’t like seeing teacher layoffs, but at least this situation is forcing out-of-touch legislators to get their act together.  If they don’t, they know you’ll throw them out in the next election. Voters are angry, and for good reason. Please keep voicing your anger because its making a real difference in Columbia.

You can call or email me anytime you have any questions. My phone number is (803) 778-2471.

Sincerely,

Murrell Smith

I’m sorry to email you two days in the row, but on this last day of the legislative session, I wanted to share some big news. Over the past year I’ve helped chair a committee tasked with writing new criminal sentencing reform for our state. In this tough economic time, our prison system has been hit hard and we saw the need to fix the problem before we were forced to let violent criminals out of jail.

I’m excited that yesterday all our hard work paid off when Governor Sanford signed our bill into law. As you can see in the article below, we are keeping violent criminals in prison while saving you money.

Please contact me if you ever have any questions about these very serious issues.

Have a great day,

Murrell Smith

POST AND COURIER: New law changes criminal sentencing
By Yvonne Wenger
The Post and Courier
Thursday, June 3, 2010

COLUMBIA — South Carolina has a new way of dealing with criminals that judges, victims’ advocates, crime and justice experts and Republicans and Democrats all have signed off on.

The comprehensive new law is intended to save money while diverting nonviolent offenders from prison to community-based programs so space is available in prison for violent criminals. Gov. Mark Sanford signed it into law Wednesday.

The new law was one year in the making. It is intended to:
–Make sure there is space for high-risk, violent offenders in prison while saving the state an estimated $350 million, the cost of building a new prison.

–Help inmates transition from prison life back to society and increase supervision of former inmates in the community.

–Provide incentives for probationers and parolees to stay drug- and crime-free in order to go from being tax burdens to taxpayers.

The lengthy new law also redefines 22 crimes as violent, providing longer sentences for some offenders. The new sentences would apply to people who commit crimes beginning on Wednesday.

It would not alter the sentences of people already serving time or those awaiting a trial, although it will allow for the early release of geriatric, terminally ill and physically disabled inmates.

Other parts of the new law will become effective over time. For example, the new standards for future probation and parole assessments will begin in January.

Lily Lenderman of Spartanburg said she has fought for some of the changes contained in the new law for seven years, after her 27-year-old grandsonwas killed in an accident involving a habitual offender.

The offender was sentenced to seven months, served four months and was arrested again for another crime 18 days after he was released from prison, Lenderman said.

“From a grandmother’s heart, I couldn’t understand that,” she said. “My cause was to get justice for my grandson and to bring something good from his death, and through this I feel like my journey has been worth it.”

The new law also increases maximum penalties for several crimes, such as harboring a fugitive.

It restructures sentences such as requiring a mandatory 30-year sentence for death caused by arson, creating a crime of attempted murder to help charge people appropriately, increasing the amount of victim restitution, and updating fines for theft for the first time in 20 years so values are more in line with present-day costs.

Other odds and ends in the bill include removing the disparity in sentencing between possession of crack cocaine and powder cocaine, establishing an oversight committee to follow the process of the bill’s implementation and measure progress, and allowing people on probation and parole to earn good-time credit.

Overtime savings in the Department of Corrections will be shifted to the probation and parole system, which is currently overwhelmed with large and increasing case loads.

Sanford said the law was “smart on crime,” a sentiment echoed by many Wednesday. The governor said it strikes the right balance and it’s good for the taxpayers. Experts from the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States helped the state develop the new law.

The prison population 25 years ago stood at about 9,000 inmates and is today at 24,000. As the population grew, so did the cost of running the Corrections Department.

In the mid-1980s the prisons ran on $63 million a year. Today it costs $394 million, Sanford said. In another five years the cost is projected to increase by another $141 million, as the prison population grows by another 3,200 inmates.

“For the taxpayers, there is something fundamentally wrong with that system,” Sanford said. “Unless we’re going to build a bunch more jails, you have got to look at alternatives. This bill does that. I think it strikes the right balance and in the process saves the taxpayers over 400 million bucks.”

South Carolina already spends less than $40 per day on each inmate, the second-lowest rate in the nation, Sanford said.

Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, called the legislation a massive undertaking. He was part of the group that spent the last year coming up with solutions to South Carolina’s haphazard criminal justice system.

“We really made a difference with this bill,” Campsen said. “It is going to change people’s lives. It will help offenders get back on their feet and make sure victims get compensated.”

Columbia, S.C. – June 2, 2010 – Gov. Mark Sanford today joined legislative leaders to sign legislation that reforms South Carolina’s criminal sentencing laws. S.1154 is aimed at reversing the trend toward incarcerating non-violent criminals who pose little or no risk to the public, discouraging recidivism by providing inmates with a more closely supervised transition to society once their sentences have been served, and saving taxpayers more than $400 million over the next five years.

“Over the last several years our Department of Corrections has done a phenomenal job of doing more with less – indeed South Carolina spends less than $40 per day on each inmate, the second lowest rate in the nation,” Gov. Sanford said. “However, a number of structural problems with our prison and parole system have prevented Corrections from making improvements that would both discourage recidivism and save taxpayer resources in the process. This bill accomplishes many of those goals. It’s designed not only to make our Corrections process even more lean and effective and thereby save taxpayers millions – but also to reduce overall crime and consequently improve the quality of life we enjoy as South Carolinians. For that reason I’d thank Senator Gerald Malloy, Chairman of the Sentencing Reform Commission, Vice-Chairman Representative Murrell Smith, Representative Keith Kelly and Corrections Director Jon Ozmint for their leadership in pushing this bill through the legislative process.”

S.1154 is based on recommendations put forward by the Sentencing Reform Commission. The legislation will make incarceration more commensurate with the crime committed, increase supervision for inmates as they transition back into normal life, limit unnecessary prison population increases, and potentially save $409 million in operating costs and construction costs over the next five years.

Folks, we’re facing some seriously tough times and in the next two years it’s only going to get worse. I don’t like seeing teacher layoffs, but at least this situation is forcing out-of-touch legislators to get their act together.  If they don’t, they know you’ll throw them out in the next election.

You can call or email me anytime you have any questions. My phone number is (803) 778-2471.

Sincerely,

Murrell Smith