HB 2796 - DIGEST

     Directs the office of financial management, in consultation with the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs, to establish a uniform equitable rate for reimbursing cities and counties for the care of sentenced felons who are the financial responsibility of the department of corrections and are detained or incarcerated in a city or county jail.

     Requires the rate to reflect the weighted state-wide average cost, including medical services, of housing an offender in city and county jails or the average annual cost per inmate incurred by the department of corrections as reported in the most recently published copy of legislative budget notes, whichever is less.

     Provides that the legislature shall, by making specific appropriations, agree to assume responsibility for certain additional jail costs which are currently borne by local governments.  Categories of costs that are to be assumed include those jail costs incurred as a result of:  (1) Serving out-of-state warrants;

     (2) serving out-of-county warrants;

     (3) holding prisoners who are arrested by any officer of the Washington state patrol, department of fish and wildlife, any public college or university police force, or the state parks department; and

     (4) offenders who are denied bail due to specific legislative enactments which made that offender ineligible for bail.