Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti addresses the Alaska State Legislature, Wednesday, March 9th 2011, in Juneau. |
Alaska's courts have been handling a lot of work lately -- litigating high profile criminal trials and helping decide a hotly contested U.S Senate race, but the state's top judge, when given the opportunity to talk about the past year, seemed to think his branch of government could do a better job.
Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti addressed the Legislature Wednesday, where he urged lawmakers to consider new ways to make the court system efficient and easy to understand.
“We need to reserve the most intense and the most costly services for the most intense cases,” said Carpeneti in his speech to a joint gathering of the House and Senate.
He praised the introduction of an online system that allows people to pay fines and consult records from home.
And with rapidly growing costs for housing inmates, Carpeneti said the state should look for more alternative ways to deal with law-breakers who are often repeat offenders.
He said certain prisoners' behavior can be changed with counseling on how to become more social and stay out of prison.
Carpeneti would like to model Alaska’s corrections system after the one in Texas, which has reduced its inmate population and saved millions of dollars.
“The most effective treatment helps offenders rewire the way that they think, by instilling the concept that in civilized society, behaviors have consequences,” said the Chief Justice.
Another priority for him in the coming year is to make courts less stressful for families going through their first divorce or custody battle.
Carpeneti said it can be as simple as posting online videos clearly explaining what to expect.
The Chief Justice did not mention the much-litigated U.S. Senate race between Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller, in which the Alaska Supreme Court played an instrumental role in determining that the Division of Elections was correct in counting certain misspelled write-in ballots for Murkowski.
The legislature is, however, addressing the issue with a bill that would allow the state to count misspellings and abbreviations. The measure passed the Senate and is now waiting in the House State Affairs Committee where it has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.
Committee Chair Bob Lynn (R-Anchorage) said he’s waiting for the Lt. Governor’s office to produce a report on the 2010 election, which is expected any day now.
