BILL REQ. #:  S-2006.2 

Read first time 03/05/11.   Referred to Committee on Human Services & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to reducing prison sentences in order to generate correctional cost savings and invest in evidence-based programming; amending RCW 9.94A.728; adding a new section to chapter 9.94A RCW; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 9.94A.728 and 2010 c 224 s 6 are each amended to read as follows:
     No person serving a sentence imposed pursuant to this chapter and committed to the custody of the department shall leave the confines of the correctional facility or be released prior to the expiration of the sentence except as follows:
     (1) An offender may earn early release time as authorized by RCW 9.94A.729;
     (2) An offender may leave a correctional facility pursuant to an authorized furlough or leave of absence. In addition, offenders may leave a correctional facility when in the custody of a corrections officer or officers;
     (3)(a) The secretary may authorize an extraordinary medical placement for an offender when all of the following conditions exist:
     (i) The offender has a medical condition that is serious and is expected to require costly care or treatment;
     (ii) The offender poses a low risk to the community because he or she is currently physically incapacitated due to age or the medical condition or is expected to be so at the time of release; and
     (iii) It is expected that granting the extraordinary medical placement will result in a cost savings to the state.
     (b) An offender sentenced to death or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole is not eligible for an extraordinary medical placement.
     (c) The secretary shall require electronic monitoring for all offenders in extraordinary medical placement unless the electronic monitoring equipment interferes with the function of the offender's medical equipment or results in the loss of funding for the offender's medical care, in which case, an alternative type of monitoring shall be utilized. The secretary shall specify who shall provide the monitoring services and the terms under which the monitoring shall be performed.
     (d) The secretary may revoke an extraordinary medical placement under this subsection at any time.
     (e) Persistent offenders are not eligible for extraordinary medical placement;
     (4) The governor, upon recommendation from the clemency and pardons board, may grant an extraordinary release for reasons of serious health problems, senility, advanced age, extraordinary meritorious acts, or other extraordinary circumstances;
     (5) No more than the final six months of the offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement designed to aid the offender in finding work and reestablishing himself or herself in the community or no more than the final twelve months of the offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement as part of the parenting program in RCW 9.94A.6551. This is in addition to that period of earned early release time that may be exchanged for partial confinement pursuant to RCW 9.94A.729(5)(d);
     (6) The governor may pardon any offender;
     (7) The department may release an offender from confinement any time within ten days before a release date calculated under this section and section 2 of this act;
     (8) An offender may leave a correctional facility prior to completion of his or her sentence if the sentence has been reduced as provided in RCW 9.94A.870 or section 2 of this act; and
     (9) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, an offender sentenced for a felony crime listed in RCW 9.94A.540 as subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of total confinement shall not be released from total confinement before the completion of the listed mandatory minimum sentence for that felony crime of conviction unless allowed under RCW 9.94A.540.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 9.94A RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Except as provided in subsections (3) and (4) of this section, any offender serving a sentence of total confinement imposed pursuant to this chapter and committed to a correctional facility operated by the department, whether sentenced before, on, or after the effective date of this section, shall be credited with a reduction in his or her release date as follows:
     (a) Offenders classified as a low risk to reoffend shall be credited with a one hundred twenty day reduction in his or her release date;
     (b) Offenders classified as a moderate risk to reoffend shall be credited with a ninety day reduction in his or her release date;
     (c) Offenders classified as a high nonviolent risk to reoffend shall be credited with a sixty day reduction in his or her release date.
     (2) The reduction shall apply to an offender's term of confinement after the application of any earned early release time pursuant to RCW 9.94A.728.
     (3) This section does not apply to offenders sentenced to life without parole or offenders serving a term of confinement for murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, a sex offense, or sentences imposed pursuant to RCW 9.94A.662 or 9.94A.670.
     (4) Under no circumstance shall an offender be released before the expiration of his or her mandatory minimum sentence as provided in RCW 9.94A.540.
     (5) The failure of the department to promptly release an offender on the new release date as calculated under this section does not create a liberty interest and shall in no circumstance give rise to a cause of action on the part of the offender.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   The legislature finds that analysis conducted by the Washington state institute for public policy suggests that juvenile and adult offender participation in certain evidence-based treatment programs can reduce the crime rate and the future demand for prison. It is the intent of the legislature that fifty percent of the savings afforded by section 2 of this act shall be reinvested in evidence-based programming as identified by the Washington state institute for public policy with the goal of maintaining no net increase in the prison caseload forecast.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.