SENATE BILL REPORT

SHB 1458

BYHouse Committee on Health Care (originally sponsored by Representatives Grant, Brooks, Braddock and Sprenkle; by request of Department of Corrections)

Regarding corrections and the intrastate compact.

House Committe on Health Care

Senate Committee on Health Care & Corrections

Senate Hearing Date(s):March 16, 1989; March 22, 1989

Majority Report:  Do pass.

      Signed by Senators West, Chairman; Smith, Vice Chairman; Amondson, Johnson, Kreidler, Niemi, Wojahn.

Senate Staff:Kris Zabriskie (786-7439)

                  March 24, 1989

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH CARE & CORRECTIONS, MARCH 22, 1989

BACKGROUND:

The Department of Corrections (DOC) is allowed to accept offenders sentenced to felony terms of less than one year when it operates a "regional jail camp."  In 1988, the McNeil Island Corrections Center Annex (MICC) was declared to be such a jail camp, and began to accept county inmates pursuant to the Washington Intrastate Corrections Compact.

The intrastate compact is in place in three counties.  DOC had 26 county inmates incarcerated in the MICC Annex at the beginning of this year.  Clark County has signed the compact and is transferring inmates.  In addition, the department has accepted one medical transfer from King County to the inpatient unit at the Washington State Reformatory and will consider others on a case-by-case basis from any county willing to be a signatory to the compact.

Counties are billed $30 per day, and may "credit" against obligations owed to the county by DOC.  Crediting is a cumbersome and complicated process involving the transfer of funds between the state, county, and the department.

SUMMARY:

The intrastate compact is enacted.  The state and a county, by mutual agreement, are allowed to exchange offenders and for one to "owe" the other even if the "repayment" will be in a different fiscal year.

Counties may enter into this compact with the Department of Corrections (DOC), or with each other, in a standardized way and at the common rate established by the Office of Financial Management.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      none requested

Senate Committee - Testified: Bruce Kuennen, DOC (pro)