The Ranking Member of the legislature’s
Judiciary Committee today praised Governor M. Jodi Rell’s
call for a
Special Session to create tougher penalties for burglary offenses.
The Governor’s announcement comes just one week after
State Senator John A. Kissel, R-Enfield, called upon the state
of Connecticut to reassess the penalties for people convicted
of burglary. Sen. Kissel also indicated at that time that
all burglaries of homes should be considered an act of violence.
Current law considers the act of burglary to be a “non-violent”
crime. Sen. Kissel believes changes to the law are necessary
to create minimum or non-suspendable sentences creating tougher
sanctions.
“After
assessing the horrible crime that occurred last week in
Cheshire the Governor has come to the conclusion that burglary
is in itself a violent crime,” said Sen. Kissel. “As
I stated last week, the act of someone breaking into your
house or even worse, breaking into your house when you are
home, is enough to make anyone feel violated. It is clearly
an act of violence. Your home is a place where you should
feel secure. I am heartened that the Governor agrees with
me on this, and I hope we can move forward with these changes
to our laws as soon as possible.”
Governor Rell announced yesterday tough
new parole standards and post-parole supervision for offenders
convicted of nighttime burglaries or burglarizing occupied
residences in Connecticut. The Governor also announced she
would ask the legislature to reclassify such offenses as
violent crimes - requiring anyone convicted to serve at
least
85 percent of their sentence before being considered for
release through parole.
Sen. Kissel said last week that the law
should be changed to require that some portion of the sentence
regarding burglaries to homes be non-suspendable. In addition,
Sen. Kissel believes that burglary should also be categorized
as a violent crime and repeat offenders should clearly fall
under the harsher penalties afforded to persistent violent
offenders.
“When someone breaks into
a home in the middle of the night there’s a very good
chance that the residents of the home are in the house.
The perpetrators have clearly violated a person’s
sense of security in their home. I applaud the Governor
for backing these measures and look forward to working with
her to make sure these new standards are implemented.”
said Sen. Kissel.
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