FINAL BILL REPORT

                 SHB 1389

                     Synopsis as Enacted

                         C 164 L 93

Brief Description:  Changing provisions relating to work crews.

By House Committee on Corrections (originally sponsored by Representative Riley).

House Committee on Corrections

Senate Committee on Law & Justice

Background:  Under the determinate sentencing laws, intermediate punishment options available to judges include partial confinement for felons sentenced for less than one year.  Partial confinement refers to the use of non-jail punishment such as home detention, work release or participation in inmate work crews.

Inmate work crews provide labor in low skilled and labor intensive projects such as picking up litter in parks and along roadways or providing landscaping work.  Inmate work crews vary in size depending on the nature of the project, available transportation and amount of available trained supervision.  Inmate work crew programs have been used by local jails to relieve jail crowding, reduce inmate idleness, reduce inmate tension and mischief, and provide inmates with a meaningful work experience.  In addition, offender work crews are used to help local county governments operate more cost effectively by providing low cost labor on civic projects.

Civic improvement tasks conducted by the work crew must not negatively impact the local labor force, existing private industries, or people with developmental disabilities contracted through a sheltered workshop.  Any disputes arising because of concerns about negative effects on the labor force, or local private industries, may be referred to the director of the Department of Labor and Industries for arbitration.  Work crew participants must abstain from alcohol and controlled substances, perform adequate work, and maintain a verifiable residence.  Work crew programs can accept or reject participants. Offenders convicted of sex crimes cannot participate in the work crew program.

All work crew programs are required to limit jobs to unskilled labor on public lands, on private land owned or operated by a nonprofit entity, or on private property to conduct emergency snow removal only.

Summary:  Both state and county offender work crews are allowed to perform civic improvement tasks for the benefit of the community without restriction regarding the ownership of the property where the work is performed.

Votes on Final Passage:

House  92 1

Senate 46 0

Effective:  July 25, 1993