At the end of session, there are many controversial or more complicated bills in flux either waiting to be heard on the floor or in concurrence as I described in my earlier blog.

Equally important, there are non controversial bills that are small, often straight forward revisions to state law that improve the efficiency or mission of governmental agencies.

Yesterday, two such bills I worked on were signed into law by the governor.

HB 1281 is an agency request bill that allows victims, survivors of victims, and witnesses to make statements to the Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board (ISRB) before an offender under the jurisdiction of the ISRB is released.

It is very important for the victims and their survivors to have the right to speak. For some survivors of victims, it is not until they have an opportunity to present information to the ISRB about the victim and the victim's life that they are able to begin to heal.

I worked on the Senate version of this bill (SB 5207), but agreed the House version should be the vehicle to carry forward.

The other was a bill I prime sponsored, SB 5987, that requires the Department of Corrections, rather than the Criminal Justice Training Commission, to identify training standards, design curricula, and provide training for its corrections personnel.