H-3861              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1427

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1988 Regular Session

By Representatives Grant, Brooks, Ebersole, Jesernig and Lux

Read first time 1/15/88 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

AN ACT Relating to the impact of the Washington State Penitentiary  on Walla Walla county and its municipalities; adding a new section to chapter 72.08 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 the Washington State Penitentiary, first opened as a territorial prison in 1887, has in the past and continues in the present to significantly impact the Walla Walla community.  Drugs, disorder, and violence which were a consequence of so-called "policies of enlightenment" in the 1970s spilled over into the community with murders that were byproducts of liberal furlough programs and the "take a lifer to dinner" experiment.  Today, as a consequence of the penitentiary's existence, drug trafficking is a problem of considerable significance in Walla Walla county and the crime rate is twenty-nine percent higher than the state average and thirty-two percent higher than counties of comparable size.  Twenty-five percent of county felony filings are penitentiary-related and twenty-two percent of all juvenile offenders placed on community supervision are from penitentiary-related families.  A significant increase in social service funding, moreover, is necessary to address the needs of many of these families.  The legislature concludes, therefore, that the penitentiary adversely impacts the county of Walla Walla and the state should compensate for these effects.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 72.08 RCW to read as follows:

Pursuant to legislative appropriation, not less than six hundred fifty-eight thousand dollars from funds generated from contracting state prison space to the federal government and to other states shall be distributed annually by the department of corrections to the county of Walla Walla and municipalities located therein.  The county and the municipalities shall use the moneys to cover costs of local law enforcement agencies and court-related offices generated by penitentiary-related cases and the social services costs of serving penitentiary-related families.