Changing Washington’s prisons

Senate Bill 5070 takes significant steps to reduce recidivism

Every year, the Legislature passes laws that increase sentences for existing crimes or new crimes. The public demands that the state holds offenders accountable if they violate the conditions of their community custody. And they should. After all, it’s a matter of increasing public safety and creating fewer victims.

However, increasing sentencing provisions also puts a strain on the capacity of our corrections system to house the growing number of offenders. The corrections system takes a significant bite out of the state budget: During the 2005-07 biennium, $1.5 billion of the state’s budget was spent on the Department of Corrections (DOC), which includes funding to operate our prisons. In the 2007-09 biennium, under the Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposal, that number increases to $1.8 billion. Rather than simply building more state prisons, Senate Bill 5070 refocuses prison ideology by investing in evidence-based programs, improving offender community reintegration and increasing corrections officers’ ability to hold offenders accountable for violations of community custody. Senate Democrats believe in implementing effective, research-driven public policies that provide better outcomes and save taxpayer money.

Recent news articles have slammed DOC for “releasing convicts from prisons” – an inaccurate interpretation. DOC was not releasing offenders prior to the end of their original sentence because of lack of bed space. DOC was in fact releasing probation violators prior to the end of the time they were given in local jails as a sanction for a violation of a term of their supervision — most often failing to report to a community corrections officer, (CCO) failing to show up for ordered treatment or failing a drug test. And after the passage of SB 5070, some news outlets also misinterpreted the community custody provisions as outlined in the bill, confusing what the bill will do and what is under current law. This is unfair and unfortunate.

Here’s what SB 5070 does:

Offender re-entry

Simply releasing an offender back onto the streets isn’t good for anyone – not for the offender, and certainly not for our communities. Ensuring that released offenders have structure and routine built into their lives upon release is a crucial part of reintegrating them into society and preventing recidivism.

SB 5070 includes comprehensive reforms in the area of offender re-entry to help keep our communities safe. It:

• Creates a pilot project creating Community Transition Coordination Networks for up to four counties to assist counties in coordinated reentry efforts for offenders returning to the community;
• Transforms work release centers into “residential reentry centers” for a fuller range of re-entry services and establishes additional Community Justice Centers (CJC) throughout the state with input from local governments on site selection; and
• Requires DOC to develop an individual assessment offender reentry plan (IRP) for each offender. Offenders are required to participate in their IRP to qualify for 50 percent earned release (“good time credits”) as provided under current law.

Supervision

Just because they aren’t behind bars doesn’t mean they’re free. Offenders on work-release or community custody still require supervision to ensure they are not a threat to community safety and are successfully reincorporating themselves into society. The bill creates clear processes for swift and consistent sanctions for violation of supervision conditions.

Education and Employment

A successful career change begins with education, and that’s especially true for offenders. Assisting them in obtaining the basic skills they’ll need is an investment that benefits our society.

SB 5070 includes necessary investments in offender education that will yield dividends in reduced recidivism. It also seeks to strengthen both the employment prospects of offenders and the businesses that will employ them.

• Funding basic academic skills such as a high school diploma or its equivalent, vocational skills or additional work and education programs; and
• Providing a tax credit to employers who hire previously incarcerated individuals.

Housing

Turning offenders onto the street with nowhere to go simply doesn’t work – it encourages a lifestyle prone to recidivism and creates a transient population that’s difficult for law enforcement to track.

SB 5070 makes our other rehabilitation efforts more effective and our communities safer by providing the following assistance:

• The Offender Re-entry Transitional Housing Assistance Program is created to provide grants for “eligible organizations” to provide: rental assistance, case management services and contracts for supportive housing facilities for homeless offenders.