By now, you've heard about the special session on crime called into order by Gov. Jeff Landry... but you might be wondering how it affects you in your neighborhood.
Over the next two weeks, your lawmakers will have to make some decisions on a list of republican-authored tough-on-crime policies, many which could reshape the way our state looks at criminal justice and the public safety sector as a whole.
The aggressive and controversial agenda is something that democrats like Sen. Gerald Boudreaux argue could do more harm than good in the long-run if not given the proper attention.
"We passed a sweeping package that had a lot of reform in it, that was in 2017," Boudreaux tells me. "So the question is, have we looked at the results and have we given it enough time to make an educated conclusion that was was passed is not working?
All the while, the session is targeting violence that takes place most of your well-known cities and neighborhoods — think New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles — even right here in Acadiana.
"Last year, our carjackings happened toward the end of the year, whereas this year, they've happened quite early on in the year," Det. Ken Handy with Lafayette Police Department tells me. "So as far as an increase goes, I'd say there's a decrease right now."
That's what police say about the issue, with a reported six cases over the course of 2023 and two since the start of the new year. However, since switching to a new record-keeping system, Lafayette Police Department was unable to provide any city-wide statistics for years prior.
In New Orleans, police actually report a 44 percent decrease in carjackings from 2022 to 2023. In Baton Rouge, authorities report a decrease of about two percent. I reached out to city law enforcement in Lake Charles and Shreveport for their numbers, but haven't heard back.
Lawmakers tell me these numbers don't lie, either. Instead, high-profile carjacking cases like that of Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and his momback in 2023 bring the issue to the forefront.
"We gotta go slow and make sure that we don't over-legislate too much, specifically again on the carjacking," Boudreaux says. "I have no opposition to the stiffer penalties and I think we need to send a strong and direct message that if it doesn't belong to you, it's not yours, you're not entitled to take something away like that."
Take a look at the books and you'll see the current sentence for carjacking can be anywhere from two to 20 years in prison without parole, and the sentence for carjacking with serious bodily harm is anywhere between 10 and 20 years behind bars.
SB 12, authored by Sen. Valarie Hodges, a republican out of Denham Springs, would increase sentencing for both offenses. That means if you're found guilty of carjacking, your minimum sentence would go up from two years to five. If that carjacking results in serious bodily harm to someone else, you'd potentially be looking down the line of a sentence 20 to 30 years in length without parole.
This special session on crime is a short one — from start to finish, just 17 days. Lawmakers have until end-of-day Wednesday, March 6, to make their moves on those 24 agenda items, including the one on carjacking. Regular session begins shortly after at noon on March 11.
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