General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 7027
January Session, 2015		LCO No. 5220
		*05220_______JUD*
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)

AN ACT CONCERNING REVISIONS TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL STATUTES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 53a-115 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2015):

(a) A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the first degree when: (1) With intent to cause damage to tangible property of another and having no reasonable ground to believe that such person has a right to do so, such person damages tangible property of another in an amount exceeding [one thousand five hundred] two thousand dollars, or (2) with intent to cause an interruption or impairment of service rendered to the public and having no reasonable ground to believe that such person has a right to do so, such person damages or tampers with tangible property of a utility or mode of public transportation, power or communication, and thereby causes an interruption or impairment of service rendered to the public, or (3) with intent to cause damage to any electronic monitoring equipment owned or leased by the state or its agent and required as a condition of probation or conditional discharge pursuant to section 53a-30, as a condition of release pursuant to section 54-64a or as a condition of community release pursuant to section 18-100c, and having no reasonable ground to believe that such person has a right to do so, such person damages such electronic monitoring equipment and thereby causes an interruption in its ability to function, or (4) with intent to cause an interruption or impairment of service rendered to the public and having no reasonable ground to believe that such person has a right to do so, such person damages or tampers with (A) any tangible property owned by the state, a municipality or a person for fire alarm or police alarm purposes, (B) any telecommunication system operated by the state police or a municipal police department, (C) any emergency medical or fire service dispatching system, (D) any fire suppression equipment owned by the state, a municipality, a person or a fire district, or (E) any fire hydrant or hydrant system owned by the state or a municipality, a person, a fire district or a private water company, or (5) with intent to cause damage to tangible property owned by the state or a municipality that is located on public land and having no reasonable ground to believe that such person has a right to do so, such person damages such tangible property in an amount exceeding [one thousand five hundred] two thousand dollars.

(b) Criminal mischief in the first degree is a class D felony.

Sec. 2. Subdivision (9) of section 53a-3 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):

(9) "Peace officer" means a member of the Division of State Police within the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection or an organized local police department, a chief inspector or inspector in the Division of Criminal Justice, a state marshal while exercising authority granted under any provision of the general statutes, a judicial marshal in the performance of the duties of a judicial marshal, a conservation officer or special conservation officer, as defined in section 26-5, a constable who performs criminal law enforcement duties, a special policeman appointed under section 29-18, 29-18a or 29-19, an adult probation officer, an official of the Department of Correction authorized by the Commissioner of Correction to make arrests in a correctional institution or facility, any investigator in the investigations unit of the office of the State Treasurer, a United States marshal or deputy marshal, any special agent of the federal government authorized to enforce the provisions of Title 21 of the United States Code, or a member of a law enforcement unit of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe or the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut created and governed by a memorandum of agreement under section 47-65c who is certified as a police officer by the Police Officer Standards and Training Council pursuant to sections 7-294a to 7-294e, inclusive;

Sec. 3. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2015) Not later than January 1, 2016, and quarterly thereafter, the Commissioner of Correction, after consultation with the Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division within the Office of Policy and Management, shall, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes, report to the General Assembly details about earned risk reduction credits awarded to reduce an inmate's sentence pursuant to section 18-98e of the general statutes. Such report shall include: (1) The number of inmates released overall and the number of inmates released early as a result of the award of such credit; (2) the crimes for which such released inmates were convicted; (3) the amount of risk reduction credit earned by inmates released early pursuant to such credit; and (4) any recidivism data regarding inmates who were released early pursuant to such credit, including any data such as rate of reentry into the correctional system, elapsed time between release and such reentry, and the crimes for which such inmates were convicted that resulted in such reentry. Not later than thirty days after submission of the report to the General Assembly, said commissioner shall post the report on the Department of Correction's Internet web site.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2015	53a-115
Sec. 2	from passage	53a-3(9)
Sec. 3	October 1, 2015	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To increase the values upon which the degrees of criminal mischief are based to mirror the values for the same misdemeanor classifications of larceny in the third and fourth degrees, to amend the definition of "peace officer" and to require the Department of Correction to report information concerning the earned risk reduction credit program.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]