HOUSE BILL REPORT

SB 5550

As Amended by the House

BYSenators Talmadge, Nelson, Halsan, Deccio, Hayner and West; by request of Department of Corrections

Revising provisions relating to sexual offenders.

House Committe on Judiciary

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (11)

      Signed by Representatives Armstrong, Chair; Crane, Vice Chair; Hargrove, Heavey, P. King, Moyer, Niemi, Schmidt, Scott, Wang and Wineberry.

House Staff:Bill Perry (786-7123)

AS PASSED HOUSE APRIL 15, 1987

BACKGROUND:

During the 1986 session, the legislature passed a measure requiring the Department of Corrections (DOC) to develop a treatment program for sex offenders in a correctional setting. The measure provided that the program commence operations during the 1987-89 biennium and coexist with the current sex offender programs at Western State Hospital and Eastern State Hospital while those programs are phased out.  The hospital programs close by 1993, and at that time the DOC program becomes the sole, state- sponsored, sex offender program for convicted felons in Washington state.

The current language states that felony sex offenders convicted and sentenced on or after July 1, 1987 shall be committed to the Department of Corrections.  This raises possible ex post facto and equal protection problems with regard to those individuals who have committed crimes prior to July 1, 1987, but are convicted and sentenced after that date.

In one section of the 1986 bill, the Governor vetoed a provision pertaining to post-release supervision but neglected to veto the same language incorporated in another section of the same bill.

SUMMARY:

A person who commits a felony sexual offense on or after July 1, 1987, must be committed to the Department of Corrections for possible placement within a treatment program operated by the department.

Courts may send a convicted sex offender to Eastern State Hospital or Western State Hospital for evaluation and assessment of amenability to treatment if the offender committed the offense before July 1, 1987.

Offenders convicted of first or second degree rape are not eligible for early release to community supervision even after successful completion of treatment.

Language which the Governor neglected to veto from a section of the 1986 bill is deleted.

Fiscal Note:      Attached.

Effective Date:The bill takes effect on July 1, 1987.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Lyle Quasim, Director, Division of Mental Health, DSHS.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    The bill is necessary to avoid possible constitutional challenges to the law and to clarify last year's veto.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.