STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 861

with Senate Floor Amendments

(Proposed by Senator SINGLETON)

ADOPTED: JANUARY 9, 2020

      This floor amendment inserts a new section in the bill to provide that persons charged with "animal cruelty offenses," as that term is defined in the bill, are to have a presumption against being admitted into a pretrial intervention program. A pretrial intervention program is a program that provides defendants, generally first-time offenders, with opportunities for alternatives to the traditional criminal justice process of ordinary prosecution.