HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1920        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3627

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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Resolve [Title].

Resolved, The General Court Hereby finds the following:

Due to inflation, as well as the fact that fines specified at different times will have been affected differently by inflation, the fines for certain offenses may be inappropriate to their severity, or not match up well with fines for other similar crimes;

The relationship between how large a fine is, how long a jail sentence is for, and how much community service is ordered, can be quite different for different crimes, without there being a valid basis

The wealth of an individual greatly impacts the severity of a fine, and thus different people will be punished to a different amount based not on their crime, but on how well they can afford to pay the fine. 

To address the issues mentioned above, the General Court intends to make adjustments to the sentencing system.

Such adjustments may include:

Periodic inflation adjustment of fines,

A one time adjustment to accommodate very out of date fines,

Establishing a standard rate relating days in jail to fines to hours of community service,

Establishing a Day-Fine system whereby fines are scaled based on the offender's income and wealth.