Brief Description: Revising partial confinement options for certain drug offenders.

Sponsors: Representatives Kagi, O'Brien and Upthegrove.

Hearing Date: 2/3/04

Staff: Jim Morishima (786-7191).

Background:

Partial confinement means confinement for no more than one year in a facility or institution operated or utilized under contract by the state or unit or local government for a substantial portion of each day with the balance of the day spent in the community. If an offender has been sentenced to home detention or work crew by a court, partial confinement may also be served in an approved residence. Partial confinement includes work release, home detention, work crew, and a combination of work crew and home detention.

A court may impose a sentence of up to a year of partial confinement for an offender sentenced to a year or less in jail. Such an offender must be confined in a facility for at least eight hours a day or, if serving a work crew sentence, must comply with the conditions of the work crew sentence. The offender must be required to report to the facility at designated times and may be required to comply with crime-related prohibitions and other affirmative conditions.

The Department of Corrections (DOC) may convert the last six months of a prison offender's sentence to partial confinement to aid the offender in finding work and reestablishing himself or herself in the community.

Summary of Bill:

The DOC may convert the last 18 months of a prison offender's sentence to partial confinement if the offender was convicted of certain drug offenses. The partial confinement must be served in partial confinement options that provide evaluation, treatment, and other services related to substance abuse, including community justice centers, residential chemical dependency treatment, or county day reporting or programming centers.

The definition of "partial confinement" is changed to include community justice centers, residential chemical dependency treatment, and county day reporting or programming centers.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Requested on January 28, 2004.

Effective Date: The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately, except for section 2, which, because of amendments made in a previous legislative session, takes effect July 1, 2004.