BILL REQ. #:  S-4850.5 

READ FIRST TIME 02/03/06.   

     AN ACT Relating to tort liability for local and state government employees, agents, officers, and representatives involved in the delivery of social, health, correctional, or supervision services; adding a new section to chapter 4.92 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that it is in the public interest to limit the liability of state and local governments for injuries caused by released offenders and other persons who are being supervised in the community or who are on a community-based treatment monitoring program. The legislature intends this act to limit both the class of supervised persons for whom state and local government can be held liable and the circumstances under which liability can be imposed.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 4.92 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) For purposes of this section:
     (a) "Supervised person" means anyone in or on community supervision, community custody, community placement, misdemeanor probation, or pretrial supervision, including juvenile offenders under the jurisdiction of the juvenile rehabilitation administration of the department of social and health services or any successor organization, anyone subject to a commitment order under chapter 10.77, 70.96A, 71.05, 71.09, or 71.34 RCW, and anyone supervised under chapter 71A.12 RCW, and conditionally released or on a less restrictive alternative.
     (b) "Dangerous propensities" means the totality of dangerous or criminal conduct about which the supervising agency, or its officers, employees, or agents knew regarding the supervised person, including the following conduct of the supervised person:
     (i) Violent or threatening criminal conduct, including prior convictions in this state or another state;
     (ii) Conduct while in custody; and
     (iii) Conduct or statements made while on supervision.
     (c) "Proximate cause" means a cause that, in a direct sequence, unbroken by any new independent cause, produces a death or injury, and without which the death or injury would not have happened.
     (2) Liability for injuries or deaths caused by supervised persons may be imposed on the state, local governments, and their agencies, officers, or employees only pursuant to this section. Damages resulting from the injury-causing conduct are indivisible. The state, local governments, and their agencies, officers, or employees may be found liable for personal injuries or deaths caused by supervised persons only if each of the following elements is present:
     (a) The injury-causing conduct of the supervised person is criminal, whether or not a charge has been filed;
     (b) The criminal act resulting in the injury or death is within the dangerous propensities of the supervised person;
     (c) The supervised person has violated those terms of the judgment and sentence, court orders, or conditions of supervision imposed on the supervised person which are crime-related prohibitions as defined in RCW 9.94A.030;
     (d) The supervising agency or its officers, employees, or agents knew of behavioral symptoms, conduct, statements, or other manifestations of an increased likelihood on the part of the supervised person of committing the act complained of. The supervised person's failure to take medications that were prescribed for the purpose of maintaining behavioral control constitutes such a behavioral symptom;
     (e) The violations of the judgment and sentence, orders, or conditions of supervision imposed on the supervised person are of a type that would have resulted in incarceration or restraint on the date of the conduct that is the subject of the suit if the violation had been reported to a judicial or quasi-judicial entity with the authority to incarcerate the supervised person; and
     (f) The supervising agency or its officers, employees, or agents failed to exercise reasonable care in the management of the supervised person, and that failure was the proximate cause of the death or injury.