An Act To Allow Blended Sentencing for Certain Juveniles

Sec. 1. 17-A MRSA §1259  is enacted to read:

§ 1259.  Commitments to the Department of Corrections of bound-over juveniles who have not attained 16 years of age at the time of sentence imposition

A juvenile who has been bound over, pursuant to Title 15, section 3101, subsection 4, for a juvenile crime for which the juvenile had the burden of proof with respect to the finding of appropriateness, who is subsequently, as to the juvenile crime's adult counterpart, convicted and sentenced to a sentence alternative involving imprisonment and who has not attained 16 years of age at the time of sentence imposition must be committed to a Department of Corrections juvenile correctional facility for an indeterminate period not to extend beyond the juvenile's 18th birthday to serve the term of imprisonment or any unsuspended portion until discharge from the juvenile correctional facility and once discharged must be transferred to a Department of Corrections adult correctional facility to serve out the remainder of the imprisonment term or unsuspended portion, if any.

Sec. 2. 34-A MRSA §3802, sub-§1, ¶F,  as amended by PL 2005, c. 328, §18, is further amended to read:

Sec. 3. 34-A MRSA §3802, sub-§1, ¶G,  as amended by PL 2005, c. 507, §21, is further amended to read:

Sec. 4. 34-A MRSA §3802, sub-§1, ¶H  is enacted to read:

Sec. 5. 34-A MRSA §4102-A, sub-§1, ¶F,  as enacted by PL 2005, c. 328, §22, is amended to read:

Sec. 6. 34-A MRSA §4102-A, sub-§1, ¶G,  as amended by PL 2005, c. 507, §25, is further amended to read:

Sec. 7. 34-A MRSA §4102-A, sub-§1, ¶H  is enacted to read:

summary

This bill requires blended sentencing for a juvenile bound over and convicted as an adult and sentenced to imprisonment if the juvenile has not attained 16 years of age at the time of sentencing and if the offense for which the juvenile was convicted is listed in the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 15, section 3101, subsection 4, paragraph C-2 as one for which the juvenile had the burden of proving bind-over was not appropriate. Blended sentencing affects only the place where imprisonment is served and means that the term of imprisonment, or, in the case of a split sentence, the unsuspended portion, imposed by the court must first be served in a Department of Corrections juvenile facility until the juvenile reaches 18 years of age or is sooner discharged from the facility and any imprisonment time remaining must then be served in a Department of Corrections adult facility.