BILL REQ. #:  S-4577.1 

Read first time 01/24/08.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to extraordinary medical expenses of offenders; amending RCW 2.70.020 and 43.08.250; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that local governments experience hardships in financing the cost of catastrophic medical expenses of incarcerated individuals. Additionally, the legislature finds that most of these costs are unavoidable, given mandatory minimum penalties that local governments must comply with in housing incarcerated individuals. It is the intent of the legislature to provide some assistance to local jurisdictions that experience extreme medical expenses that exceed ten thousand dollars per individual offender per calendar year.

Sec. 2   RCW 2.70.020 and 1996 c 221 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     The director, under the supervision and direction of the advisory committee, shall:
     (1) Administer all criminal appellate indigent defense services;
     (2) Submit a biennial budget for all costs related to state appellate indigent defense;
     (3) Establish administrative procedures, standards, and guidelines for the program including a cost-efficient system that provides for recovery of costs;
     (4) Recommend criteria and standards for determining and verifying indigency. In recommending criteria for determining indigency, the director shall compile and review the indigency standards used by other state agencies and shall periodically submit the compilation and report to the legislature on the appropriateness and consistency of such standards;
     (5) Collect information regarding indigency cases funded by the state and report annually to the legislature and the supreme court;
     (6) Coordinate with the supreme court and the judges of each division of the court of appeals to determine how attorney services should be provided;
     (7) Administer a program for local jurisdiction assistance with extraordinary medical expenses. Reimbursement shall be made to the jurisdiction that is ultimately financially responsible for the medical bills.
     (a) To be eligible for the assistance, a city or county must submit actual copies of its bills, protected for patient confidentiality, to the office of public defense no later than ninety days following the end of each calendar year. The total costs for an individual offender during the calendar year must exceed ten thousand dollars in order for the jurisdiction to qualify for assistance.
     (b) Reimbursement rates will follow the medicaid reimbursement rate, regardless of the rate at which the city or county was billed. If the appropriation is not enough to provide assistance for all applications, assistance shall be provided on a proportional basis, linking the proportion of the aggregate requests in relation to the proportion of the total funding available.
     (c) The director may seek assistance in reviewing the extraordinary medical expenses from the health care authority and the department of corrections.
     The office of public defense shall not provide direct representation of clients.

Sec. 3   RCW 43.08.250 and 2007 c 522 s 950 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The money received by the state treasurer from fees, fines, forfeitures, penalties, reimbursements or assessments by any court organized under Title 3 or 35 RCW, or chapter 2.08 RCW, shall be deposited in the public safety and education account which is hereby created in the state treasury. The legislature shall appropriate the funds in the account to promote traffic safety education, highway safety, criminal justice training, crime victims' compensation, judicial education, the judicial information system, civil representation of indigent persons under RCW 2.53.030, winter recreation parking, drug court operations, and state game programs. Through the fiscal biennium ending June 30, 2009, the legislature may appropriate moneys from the public safety and education account for purposes of appellate indigent defense and other operations of the office of public defense, the criminal litigation unit of the attorney general's office, the treatment alternatives to street crimes program, crime victims advocacy programs, justice information network telecommunication planning, treatment for supplemental security income clients, sexual assault treatment, operations of the administrative office of the courts, security in the common schools, alternative school start-up grants, programs for disruptive students, criminal justice data collection, Washington state patrol criminal justice activities, drug court operations, unified family courts, local court backlog assistance, financial assistance to local jurisdictions for extraordinary costs incurred in the adjudication of criminal cases, financial assistance to local jurisdictions for extraordinary costs incurred for prisoner medical expenses, domestic violence treatment and related services, the department of corrections' costs in implementing chapter 196, Laws of 1999, reimbursement of local governments for costs associated with implementing criminal and civil justice legislation, the replacement of the department of corrections' offender-based tracking system, secure and semi-secure crisis residential centers, HOPE beds, the family policy council and community public health and safety networks, the street youth program, public notification about registered sex offenders, and narcotics or methamphetamine-related enforcement, education, training, and drug and alcohol treatment services.
     (2)(a) The equal justice subaccount is created as a subaccount of the public safety and education account. The money received by the state treasurer from the increase in fees imposed by sections 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, and 19, chapter 457, Laws of 2005 shall be deposited in the equal justice subaccount and shall be appropriated only for:
     (i) Criminal indigent defense assistance and enhancement at the trial court level, including a criminal indigent defense pilot program;
     (ii) Representation of parents in dependency and termination proceedings;
     (iii) Civil legal representation of indigent persons; and
     (iv) Contribution to district court judges' salaries and to eligible elected municipal court judges' salaries.
     (b) For the 2005-07 fiscal biennium, an amount equal to twenty-five percent of revenues to the equal justice subaccount, less one million dollars, shall be appropriated from the equal justice subaccount to the administrator for the courts for purposes of (a)(iv) of this subsection. For the 2007-09 fiscal biennium and subsequent fiscal biennia, an amount equal to fifty percent of revenues to the equal justice subaccount shall be appropriated from the equal justice subaccount to the administrator for the courts for the purposes of (a)(iv) of this subsection.
     (3) The excessive medical expenses subaccount is created as a subaccount of the public safety and education account. An amount equal to three million dollars shall be appropriated each biennium to the office of public defense to provide assistance to local jurisdictions for extraordinary costs incurred for prisoner medical expenses. Fifty percent of the assistance will be provided to cities and fifty percent to counties consistent with the requirements in section 1 of this act.