Batt Proposes Cutting Penalty For Bad Checks

Penalties for issuing certain bad checks could be reduced if legislators adopt one of Gov. Phil Batt’s recommendations to reduce crowding in state prisons.

In his Committee of One Sentencing Study issued this summer, Batt suggested changing from felony to misdemeanor status the writing of insufficient funds checks under $50.

The recommendation is one of several he issued aimed at reducing sentences for non-violent offenders in Idaho’s increasingly crowded state prison system.

“While this is a costly crime to those who are fleeced by these no-account checks, there is little social purpose in a long sentence,” Batt said in the study.

Batt said the number of inmates in the state’s prison system has increased 28 percent in two years, from 3,200 to 4,100. About 40 percent of those inmates have committed violent and/or sex crimes.

“We looked only at the remaining 60 percent,” he said.