BATON ROUGE, La. — Tough on crime legislation continues to move at a rapid pace, one week into the special crime session at the state capitol.
Monday, Louisiana legislative committees spent much of the day considering bills advanced out either the full House or Senate.
“Most of the Senate bills are in House committees and will be for the next two days and the House bills are in Senate committees for the next two days,” Senate President, Sen. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie said.
Bills currently moving through the legislature would eliminate parole and limit good time release for most state inmates, impose harsher penalties for certain crimes such as carjacking, expand death penalty methods, crackdown on the use of weapons, allow concealed carry of a weapon without a permit, and make some youth court records public.
Henry says this week lawmakers will focus on the financial impact and feasibility of the new laws.
“We’re going to slow down things a little bit in the next couple of days and really dig into the numbers to make sure that everything is implementable.”
Many Senate and House Democrats have criticized the pace at which bills have been considered during the special session.
“These bills are being rammed though,” Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans said. “The rules have been suspended so that we don’t have the same amount of time to vet these bills, to debate these bills, to consider the implications of these bills.”
Others claim the legislation will move the state in the wrong direction.
“I think there’s a false narrative,” Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans said. “I think many people in this state are going to expect crime rates to plummet after this crime session and I just don’t see that happening.”
Although there is agreement on some issues such as imposing stricter sentences for fentanyl distribution and expanding drug courts across the state.
“There are certain bills that are moving forward that do have bi-partisan support,” Willard said.
Several bills voted on during the special session will likely be amended during the regular session later this year.
Some New Orleans area lawmakers say permit-less carry should not apply to Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.
“That bill does not go into effect until July 4, so we have time to fix, to amend that in the regular session, so that’s what I plan to do in the regular session, to treat Bourbon Street, the actually street in front of the bars as a bar, so you cannot carry a concealed weapon on Bourbon Street,” Talbot said.
Senator Henry expects all of the bills to be out of committee by Wednesday and taken up for final passage on Thursday.
“The governor’s agenda is moving seamlessly through the process,” Henry said.