HOUSE BILL REPORT

2SSB 5111

BYSenate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Pullen, Niemi, Thorsness, McCaslin and Johnson)

Modifying work release provisions.

House Committe on Health Care

Majority Report:  Do pass with amendments.  (11)

      Signed by Representatives Braddock, Chair; Day, Vice Chair; Brooks, Ranking Republican Member, Cantwell, Chandler, Morris, Prentice, D. Sommers, Sprenkle, Vekich and Wolfe.

House Staff:Antonio Sanchez (786-7383)

AS PASSED HOUSE APRIL 5, 1989

BACKGROUND:

Current law allows offenders who qualify under the Sentencing Reform Act to serve the final six months of their sentences in a partial confinement work release program.  There is concern that this provision, in conjunction with earned early release time, entitles the offender to spend substantially less time in the correctional facility than was intended under the Sentencing Reform Act.

The potential risk posed by work release centers to surrounding communities has generated interest in additional reforms to the work release system, particularly in view of recent incidents where inmates have escaped and committed violent offenses, including murder.

SUMMARY:

A maximum of three months in the work release program is authorized for offenders with sentences of less than three years, and up to six months for offenders with sentences of three or more years.  An offender's participation in the work release program is reduced as his or her offender score increases on the sentencing guidelines grid.

The Department of Corrections is required to encourage businesses employing work release inmates to contact the appropriate work release facility whenever an inmate is absent from work.  In addition, the department must develop a siting policy for future work release facilities, in conjunction with cities, counties, and the Department of Community Development.

The department must establish a case management procedure to evaluate and determine those work release inmates in need of treatment, and develop a treatment program best suited to each inmate's needs.

By June 1 of each year, the department must submit to the Senate Law and Justice Committee and the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee a report on the status of the work release program for the previous year.

The Department of Corrections is required to establish, by rule, inmate eligibility standards for participation in the work release program.  The department must also conduct an examination of security and inmate supervision policies at each work release facility and establish physical standards for future work release structures.  In addition, the department is required to evaluate its recordkeeping of serious infractions and determine if infractions are properly and consistently assessed against inmates eligible for work release.

The department must report to the Legislature on a case management procedure to evaluate and determine those inmates on work release who need treatment.  The report is to consider a written treatment plan best suited to each inmate's needs, and the relationship of community placement and community corrections officers to a system of case management.

The department is required to comply with these requirements by July 1, 1990. The provision which reduces from six months to three months the maximum amount of time an inmate with a sentence of less than three years may spend in a work release program is omitted.

Fiscal Note:      Available.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Norm Maleng, King County Prosecuting Attorney; Chase Riveland, Department of Corrections; Joseph Lehman, Department of Corrections; Ken Cole, Pioneer Human Services; Ida Ballasiotes; Charles Marsh, Police Council; Kent Pullen, State Senator; Casey Carmody, Friends of Diane Ballasiotes and Eleanor Ballasiotes (with changes).

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    Greater structure uniformity and accounting of the work release program will provide better protection and safety for the communities that support this program.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.