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A "plea in abeyance" is an agreement where a defendant pleads guilty or no contest but the court holds off on entering a conviction or sentence while the person completes certain conditions, after which the charge can potentially be dismissed. This bill would require prosecutors to offer this arrangement to defendants who have never before been convicted of any offense, were 18 years old at the time of the offense, and are charged with retail theft, underage alcohol possession or consumption, or misdemeanor drug possession. For these specific cases, the agreement could not include jail time or require the defendant to pay a fee of $200 or more, and the defendant would have to be allowed to perform compensatory (community) service in place of paying that fee. The bill also updates the state's general compensatory-service law so that, alongside criminal fines, people can now work off plea-in-abeyance fees through approved service at a rate of $12 per hour, with courts required to inform eligible defendants of this option and barred from allowing service in place of victim restitution payments.