S-0912

AN ACT Relating to child protection; amending RCW 13.34.020 and 43.43.760; reenacting and amending RCW 43.43.735; adding new sections to chapter 36.27 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 26.44 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 43.43 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 9.94A RCW; creating new sections; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. It is the intent of the legislature to safeguard children in situations where there is a reasonable basis for believing the potential for physical or sexual abuse exists. In an effort to prevent the possibility of abuse, a person who has been accused of physically or sexually abusing a child should be restrained from exercising visitation rights with a minor child if a law enforcement officer who is conducting an investigation of the alleged abuse requests a temporary restraining order from the court. The safety of all children is enhanced when sexual assault cases are properly investigated and prosecuted. Specialized training in the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases, with an emphasis on child victims, is needed as well as the creation of a sexual assault prosecution assistance program.

Due to a lack of rehabilitative knowledge and services, there is a significant likelihood that a person who has been convicted of physical or sexual abuse of a child will reoffend. Monitoring of the offender's contacts with children could prevent the occurrence of future offenses. In employment positions where services are provided to children, developmentally disabled persons, and vulnerable adults, a background check, including a check of military records, is necessary to determine the person's suitability for employment. In order to deter prospective abuse, a child should be removed immediately from the care of a parent or guardian who has been convicted of crimes against children or other persons as defined in the law and a dependency proceeding should be commenced. When a dependency proceeding is in progress and a child has been in a foster home for a period of six months or more, that foster parent acquires the right to be a party to the dependency proceeding so that the court may have comprehensive information about the foster child.

PART I

NEW SECTION. Sec. 101. FINDINGS. The legislature finds that sexual assault cases, particularly those in which children are victimized, are difficult to prosecute successfully. To prosecute such cases successfully requires that the prosecutors and investigators have a high degree of training and skill in handling sexual assaults. The legislature further finds that in the less populated areas of the state, it is difficult for local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to obtain the needed specialization to handle these cases. Therefore, the legislature intends to establish a mechanism to provide the training and special investigators to more effectively prosecute these cases.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 102. TRAINING FOR INVESTIGATING AND PROSECUTING. (1) Each year the criminal justice training commission shall offer an intensive, week-long training session on investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases for up to twenty prosecuting attorneys and deputy prosecuting attorneys. The training shall place particular emphasis on the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases involving child victims.

(2) The commission shall seek advice from the Washington association of prosecuting attorneys and the Washington coalition of sexual assault programs in planning the curriculum and recruiting faculty for this program.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 103. SEXUAL ASSAULT PROSECUTION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. (1) There is created in the department of community development the sexual assault prosecution assistance program to assist county prosecuting attorneys in the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault and child abuse cases, primarily for those cases involving child victims. The department of community development shall contract with the Washington state association of prosecuting attorneys to employ a project coordinator who shall be responsible for the training, assignment, and overall supervision of investigators trained and employed by the sexual assault programs.

(2) The department of community development shall employ ten investigators who shall be assigned to the program and shall be under the supervision of the project coordinator. The investigators shall be specially trained in investigating sexual assault cases, with primary focus on those cases involving child victims. The project coordinator shall assign each investigator to a prosecuting attorney in areas of the state where law enforcement officers who specialize in investigating child sexual assault or abuse are not available. The prosecuting attorney shall be responsible for the daily supervision of the investigators and may agree to make the investigator available for investigations on a regional basis and may be made available to child protective services, if requested.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 104. SEXUAL ASSAULT COMMITTEE. A state-wide committee on sexual assault is established. The committee shall be comprised of five prosecuting attorneys, one representative of the department of social and health services, a representative of the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs, two representatives from the Washington coalition of sexual assault programs, and four legislators, two from each house, one from each caucus. The committee shall oversee the project and provide advice to the project coordinator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 105. LEGAL ADVOCATES. The department of social and health services shall provide up to one legal advocate per sexual assault program that qualifies for funding under the victims of sexual assault fund. The legal advocates shall have completed a training program to be designed and administered by the Washington association of prosecuting attorneys and the Washington coalition of sexual assault programs.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 106. Sections 102 through 105 of this act are each added to chapter 36.27 RCW.

PART II

NEW SECTION. Sec. 201. A new section is added to chapter 26.44 RCW to read as follows:

RESTRAINED VISITATION RIGHTS. (1) If a person who has unsupervised visitation rights with a minor child pursuant to a court order is accused of sexually or physically abusing a child and the alleged abuse has been reported to the proper authorities for investigation, the law enforcement officer conducting the investigation may file a motion with the court for a temporary restraining order to restrain the alleged abuser's visitation rights during the investigation. The investigating law enforcement officer shall submit an affidavit stating that the person is currently under investigation for sexual or physical abuse of a child and that the prosecuting attorney does not have enough information at the time to determine whether prosecution is warranted. The restraining order shall be issued for up to ninety days or until the investigation has been concluded in favor of the alleged abuser, whichever is shorter.

(2) Willful violation of a court order entered under this section is a misdemeanor. The court order shall state: "Violation of this order is a criminal offense under chapter 26.44 RCW and will subject the violator to arrest."

PART III

Sec. 301. RCW 13.34.020 and 1990 c 284 s 31 are each amended to read as follows:

The legislature declares that the family unit is a fundamental resource of American life which should be nurtured. Toward the continuance of this principle, the legislature declares that the family unit should remain intact unless a child's right to conditions of basic nurture, health, or safety is jeopardized. When the rights of basic nurture, physical and mental health, and safety of the child and the legal rights of the parents are in conflict, the rights and safety of the child should prevail. If a parent or guardian has been convicted of any of the crimes enumerated in RCW 43.43.830, the child shall be removed from the care of the parent and a dependency proceeding instituted immediately. The right of a child to basic nurturing includes the right to a safe, stable, and permanent home and a speedy resolution of any proceeding under this chapter.

PART IV

NEW SECTION. Sec. 401. A new section is added to chapter 43.43 RCW to read as follows:

(1) All applicants as defined in RCW 43.43.830(1)(a) and (b) shall be fingerprinted at a local law enforcement agency and pay the cost for such fingerprinting. The fingerprints shall be stored by the Washington state patrol criminal identification system for the purpose of transmittal to the federal bureau of investigation identification division when a written request for a federal background check of an applicant is received. The state patrol may waive the requirement for fingerprints if a federal waiver is obtained.

(2) Federal bureau of investigation criminal history record information may be received only by a state or local governmental agency and shall not be provided to private entities. If a business or organization made the request for a federal background check, the governmental agency in receipt of the records shall, based upon the criminal history record information, determine the applicant's suitability for employment and inform the inquiring business or organization.

Sec. 402. RCW 43.43.760 and 1985 c 201 s 15 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Whenever a resident of this state appears before any law enforcement agency and requests an impression of his or her fingerprints to be made, such agency may comply with his or her request and make the required copies of the impressions on forms marked "Personal Identification". The required copies shall be forwarded to the section and marked "for personal identification only".

The section shall accept and file such fingerprints submitted voluntarily by such resident, for the purpose of securing a more certain and easy identification in case of death, injury, loss of memory, or other similar circumstances. Upon the request of such person, the section shall return his or her identification data.

(2) Whenever any person is an applicant for appointment to any position or is an applicant for employment or is an applicant for a license to be issued by any governmental agency, and the law or a regulation of such governmental agency requires that the applicant be of good moral character or not have been convicted of a crime, or is an applicant for appointment to or employment with a criminal justice agency, or the department, the applicant may request any law enforcement agency to make an impression of his or her fingerprints to be submitted to the section. The law enforcement agency may comply with such request and make copies of the impressions on forms marked "applicant", and submit such copies to the section.

The section shall accept such fingerprints and shall cause its files to be examined and shall promptly send to the appointing authority, employer, or licensing authority indicated on the form of application, a transcript of the record of previous crimes committed by the person described on the data submitted, or a transcript of the dependency record information regarding the person described on the data submitted, or if there is no record of his or her commission of any crimes, or if there is no dependency record information, a statement to that effect.

(3) The Washington state patrol shall charge fees for processing of noncriminal justice system requests for criminal history record information pursuant to this section which will cover, as nearly as practicable, the direct and indirect costs to the patrol of processing such requests.

Any law enforcement agency may charge a fee ((~~not to exceed five dollars~~)) that has been adopted by administrative rule for the purpose of taking fingerprint impressions or searching its files of identification for noncriminal purposes.

Sec. 403. RCW 43.43.735 and 1989 c 334 s 9 and 1989 c 6 s 2 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) It shall be the duty of the sheriff or director of public safety of every county, and the chief of police of every city or town, and of every chief officer of other law enforcement agencies duly operating within this state, to cause the photographing and fingerprinting of all adults and juveniles lawfully arrested for the commission of any criminal offense constituting a felony or gross misdemeanor. (a) When such juveniles are brought directly to a juvenile detention facility, the juvenile court administrator is also authorized, but not required, to cause the photographing, fingerprinting, and record transmittal to the appropriate law enforcement agency; and (b) a further exception may be made when the arrest is for a violation punishable as a gross misdemeanor and the arrested person is not taken into custody.

(2) It shall be the right, but not the duty, of the sheriff or director of public safety of every county, and the chief of police of every city or town, and every chief officer of other law enforcement agencies operating within this state to photograph and record the fingerprints of all adults lawfully arrested, all persons who are the subject of dependency record information, or all persons who are the subject of protection proceeding record information.

(3) For cases adjudicated under Title 26 RCW in which a finding of sexual or physical abuse is entered, the court shall require the offender to be photographed and fingerprinted by law enforcement. Law enforcement shall transmit the photographs and fingerprints to the Washington state patrol for retention in the event a background check is requested.

(4) Such sheriffs, directors of public safety, chiefs of police, and other chief law enforcement officers, may record, in addition to photographs and fingerprints, the palmprints, soleprints, toeprints, or any other identification data of all persons whose photograph and fingerprints are required or allowed to be taken under this section, all persons who are the subject of dependency record information, or all persons who are the subject of protection proceeding record information, when in the discretion of such law enforcement officers it is necessary for proper identification of the arrested person or the investigation of the crime with which he or she is charged.

((~~(4)~~)) (5) It shall be the duty of the department of licensing or the court having jurisdiction over the dependency action and protection proceedings under chapter 74.34 RCW to cause the fingerprinting of all persons who are the subject of a disciplinary board final decision, dependency record information, protection proceeding record information, or to obtain other necessary identifying information, as specified by the section in rules adopted under chapter 34.05 RCW to carry out the provisions of this subsection.

((~~(5)~~)) (6) The court having jurisdiction over the dependency or protection proceeding action may obtain and record, in addition to fingerprints, the photographs, palmprints, soleprints, toeprints, or any other identification data of all persons who are the subject of dependency record information or protection proceeding record information, when in the discretion of the court it is necessary for proper identification of the person.

PART V

NEW SECTION. Sec. 501. A new section is added to chapter 9.94A RCW to read as follows:

MONITORING OFFENDERS. (1) When a person is found guilty of, or pleads nolo contendere to, a violation of chapter 9.68A or 9A.44 RCW, RCW 9A.32.030, 9A.32.040, 9A.32.050, 9A.32.055, 9A.32.060, 9A.32.070, 9A.36.011, 9A.36.021, 9A.36.031, 9A.36.041, 9A.40.020, 9A.40.030, 9A.40.040, 9A.42.020, 9A.42.030, or 9A.64.020, and in which the victim was a child, the court shall make a special finding that the offender is subject to the provisions of this section and shall order that upon completion of the offender's sentence the person shall be monitored as provided in subsection (2) of this section for a period of ten years. If the court finds that extraordinary circumstances exist or that such monitoring should not be imposed in a specific case, the court may waive such monitoring.

(2) The secretary of social and health services shall monitor persons found by the court to be subject to monitoring under subsection (1) of this section. The monitoring services shall:

(a) Be performed by workers or volunteer workers who are trained and qualified to work with child abuse offenders;

(b) Include at least two face-to-face contacts with the offender each month;

(d) Ascertain whether and under what conditions the offender is in the presence of a child or children.

PART VI

NEW SECTION. Sec. 601. Section and part headings as used in this act do not constitute any part of the law.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 602. The sum of eighty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the criminal justice training commission for the purposes of section 102 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 603. The sum of one million two hundred eighty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the department of community development for the purposes of section 103 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 604. The sum of one million dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of section 105 of this act.