HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 1879

                    As Amended by Senate

Title:  An act relating to costs of juvenile offenders.

Brief Description:  Revising provision for costs of support, treatment, and confinement of juvenile offenders.

Sponsors:  Representative Boldt.

Brief History:

  Committee Activity:

Corrections:  2/22/95, 2/24/95 [DP].

Floor Activity:

Passed House:  3/14/95, 92-6.

Senate Amended.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON CORRECTIONS

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 9 members:  Representatives Ballasiotes, Chairman; Blanton, Vice Chairman; Quall, Ranking Minority Member; Tokuda, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Cole; Dickerson; Radcliff; K. Schmidt and Schoesler.

Minority Report:  Do not pass.  Signed by 2 members:  Representatives Sherstad, Vice Chairman; and Koster.

Staff:  Rick Neidhardt (786-7841).

Background:  When a juvenile is ordered to serve time in a county juvenile detention facility, the court may order the parents or other legally obligated person to pay, in whole or in part, the costs of supporting, treating and confining the juvenile.

When a juvenile is ordered to serve time in a state juvenile facility, the juvenile's parents or other legally obligated person must pay, at least in part, the costs of supporting, treating and confining the juvenile, pursuant to a schedule developed by the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration.

The juvenile's parents or other legally obligated person can be obligated to pay these costs even when the juvenile's offense was committed against another person in that family.  A concern exists that the juvenile's family should not be required to pay for these costs when the family itself is the victim of the juvenile's offense.

Summary of Bill:  A juvenile's parents, or other legally obligated person, shall not be required to pay costs of support, treatment, and confinement of the juvenile if the juvenile is being confined for an offense that was committed against a member of the juvenile's family. 

The juvenile's family is defined to include parents and siblings, whether by birth or marriage, and any legal guardians, regardless of residential placement.

EFFECT OF SENATE AMENDMENT(S):

The amendment clarifies language defining who is obligated to pay the costs.  The amendment restricts the bill's application to those families whose child is confined at a state juvenile facility.  An emergency clause is added.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  When a juvenile commits an offense against his or her own family, the family suffers an emotional impact.  The emotional impact is felt all over again if the parents have to pay toward the confinement costs of that juvenile.  The family gets victimized twice.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Representative Marc Boldt (pro); Toni Martinez (pro); and Sid Sidorowicz, Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (no position on bill).

Votes on Final Passage:

Yeas 92; Nays 6

Nays:  Beeksma, Crouse, Goldsmith, Hargrove, Koster, Sherstad