Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Human Services Committee

HB 1789

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Permits the Department of Corrections (DOC) to rely solely on the jail certification to determine the amount of earned release time for an offender who was sentenced and transferred from a local jail facility to the DOC.
Creates a legal standard for an apparent or manifest error of law by providing that a discrepancy between credit for presentence time served as certified by a jail and the amount contained in a judgment and sentence does not constitute an apparent or manifest error of law.

Background:

For defendants who have entered a plea of guilty to or been found guilty of an offense, the trial court must enter an order on judgment and sentence. A judgment and sentence issued from superior court identifies the offenses for which the defendant is being sentenced, states the length of the sentence, identifies conditions of community custody or supervision, and contains the defendant's fingerprints, as well as other information. The trial court must give the defendant credit for all presentence time served in confinement if that confinement was solely in regard to the offense for which the defendant was sentenced.

Earned Release Time.

Earned release time, also widely known as "good time," refers to an amount of time for which an offender receives credit based upon different factors, including the nature of the offense for which he or she is serving time and the offender's behavior. The amount of earned release time allowed varies from facility to facility, but it may range from 15 to 50 percent. While an offender is serving time in a county jail facility pending sentencing, he or she may earn early release time for that time spent in custody prior to being transferred to the Department of Corrections (DOC). The sentencing court does not have the statutory authority to grant earned release time to an offender. Only a facility in which a defendant is held has the authority to certify earned early release time.

Upon receipt of a certification of earned release time from a jail facility, the DOC is not obligated to review the accuracy of the certification. If a certification does not contain apparent or manifest errors of law, the DOC is entitled to give that certification legal effect. A manifest error, according to Black's Law Dictionary (7th edition) is an error that is plain and indisputable, and that amounts to a complete disregard of the controlling law or the credible evidence in the record.

Summary of Bill:

The DOC is allowed to rely solely on the jail certification to determine the amount of earned release time that is due to an offender. The DOC may give legal effect to a certification of earned early release time even if there is a disparity between the amount of presentence time served as certified by the jail and the amount of presentence time served as ordered by the court in the judgment and sentence. Under this bill, such discrepancy would not constitute an apparent or manifest error of law.