BILL REQ. #:  S-3290.1 

Read first time 01/09/12.   Referred to Committee on Human Services & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to worker safety at state hospitals; amending RCW 9A.36.100; adding a new section to chapter 10.77 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 70.48 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 10.77 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) At the request of a state hospital employee, the secretary shall designate an expert to evaluate a patient at a state hospital for competency to stand trial if the employee was assaulted by the patient in the course of the employee's duties within the last one hundred eighty days and provides the secretary with a police report documenting the assault. The expert shall provide his or her opinion in writing to the police agency which investigated the assault within fifteen days of the employee's request.
     (2) The investigating police agency may forward the expert's opinion to a prosecutor's office to assist the prosecutor in making a charging decision in the case.

Sec. 2   RCW 9A.36.100 and 1988 c 151 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A person is guilty of custodial assault if that person is not guilty of an assault in the first or second degree and where the person:
     (a) Assaults a full or part-time staff member or volunteer, any educational personnel, any personal service provider, or any vendor or agent thereof at any juvenile corrections institution or local juvenile detention facilities who was performing official duties at the time of the assault;
     (b) Assaults a full or part-time staff member or volunteer, any educational personnel, any personal service provider, or any vendor or agent thereof at any adult corrections institution or local adult detention facilities who was performing official duties at the time of the assault;
     (c)(((i))) Assaults a full or part-time community corrections officer, other full or part-time community corrections office employee, or volunteer while the officer, employee, or volunteer is performing official duties; or
     (((ii) Assaults any other full or part-time employee who is employed in a community corrections office while the employee is performing official duties; or))
     (d) Assaults ((any volunteer who was assisting a person described in (c) of this subsection)) a full or part-time staff member or volunteer, any educational personnel, any personal service provider, or any vendor or agent thereof at any state hospital under RCW 72.23.010 who was performing official duties at the time of the assault.
     (2) Custodial assault is a class C felony.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 70.48 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) When a patient of a state hospital is arrested and booked into jail based on a new charge allegedly committed while the patient was being involuntarily treated at the state hospital, the state hospital shall certify to the jail the patient's county of origin, which for the purpose of this section is defined as the county which ordered the original commitment of the patient.
     (2) A state hospital patient who is detained in jail solely based on charges that originated while the patient was being involuntarily treated at a state hospital is the financial responsibility of the county of origin as defined in subsection (1) of this section for the purpose of the cost of incarceration while the defendant is awaiting trial.
     (3) A jail may not refuse to book a patient of a state hospital solely based on the patient's status as a state hospital patient, but may consider other relevant factors that apply to the individual circumstances in each case.