FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 1371

                         C 104 L 91

                     Synopsis As Enacted

Brief Description:  Modifying probation assessment provisions.

By Representatives Hargrove, Winsley, Prentice, Morris, Tate, Riley, Leonard, H. Myers, D. Sommers, Wynne, Moyer, Miller and May; by request of Department of Corrections.

House Committee on Human Services

Senate Committee on Law & Justice

Background:  The Division of Community Corrections, within the Department of Corrections, is responsible for managing felony offenders within local communities.  Community correction officers monitor offender behavior and direct offenders towards acceptable lifestyles through involvement in community-based rehabilitative programs.  The programs include: community supervision, work training release, and victim and witness notification.

The Department of Corrections charges offenders the cost, or part of the cost, of providing community supervision services.  The court is responsible for establishing or changing the amount of supervision fees that an offender is required to pay.  If the offender's ability to pay the supervision fee changes, the state is required to take the offender back to court to modify the payment amount.  The court is the only entity that can change the order to pay supervision fees.

Summary:  The Department of Corrections rather than the court, is authorized to decrease or defer offender supervision fees or exempt a person from payment of the fees.  It is clarified that offenders serving a period of community supervision, community placement, or parole will pay community supervision fees assessments. 

Votes on Final Passage:

House  95   0

Senate 45   0

Effective:    July 28, 1991