BP BHEAD INT H

AN ACT Relating to the creation of a juvenile offender boot camp; amending RCW 13.40.030; adding a new section to chapter 13.40 RCW; creating a new section; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that many juvenile criminal offenders who enter the prison system learn more how to commit additional crimes than to lead disciplined, law-abiding lives.

The legislature further finds that many juvenile offenders are in trouble because they lack the discipline and life skills to ultimately achieve worthwhile goals. These juvenile offenders frequently lack systematic work habits, respect for the person and property of others, and the ability to deal with authority figures.

The legislature intends that juvenile offenders who enter the juvenile rehabilitation system as serious and middle offenders have the opportunity to live and work in an environment that will promote self-discipline, respect, personal accountability, and a sound work ethic with the purpose of making them more likely to become productive, contributing citizens in society. Therefore, the legislature establishes a one hundred twenty-day juvenile offender boot camp program within the juvenile corrections system that can serve as a model to local corrections programs. This juvenile offender boot camp program shall provide offenders with the structures and resources for maintaining long-term positive lifestyle changes.

Sec. 2. RCW 13.40.030 and 1989 c 407 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

(1)(a) The juvenile disposition standards commission shall recommend to the legislature no later than November 1st of each year disposition standards for all offenses. The standards shall establish, in accordance with the purposes of this chapter, ranges which may include terms of confinement, including the juvenile offender boot camp program established in section 3 of this act, and/or community supervision established on the basis of a youth's age, the instant offense, and the history and seriousness of previous offenses, but in no case may the period of confinement and supervision exceed that to which an adult may be subjected for the same offense(s). Standards recommended for offenders listed in RCW 13.40.020(1) shall include a range of confinement which may not be less than thirty days. No standard range may include a period of confinement which includes both more than thirty, and thirty or less, days. Disposition standards recommended by the commission shall provide that in all cases where a youth is sentenced to a term of confinement in excess of thirty days the department may impose an additional period of parole not to exceed eighteen months. Standards of confinement which may be proposed may relate only to the length of the proposed terms and not to the nature of the security to be imposed. In developing recommended disposition standards, the commission shall consider the capacity of the state juvenile facilities and the projected impact of the proposed standards on that capacity.

(b) The secretary shall submit guidelines pertaining to the nature of the security to be imposed on youth placed in his or her custody based on the age, offense(s), and criminal history of the juvenile offender. Such guidelines shall be submitted to the legislature for its review no later than November 1st of each year. At the same time the secretary shall submit a report on security at juvenile facilities during the preceding year. The report shall include the number of escapes from each juvenile facility, the most serious offense for which each escapee had been confined, the number and nature of offenses found to have been committed by juveniles while on escape status, the number of authorized leaves granted, the number of failures to comply with leave requirements, the number and nature of offenses committed while on leave, and the number and nature of offenses committed by juveniles while in the community on minimum security status; to the extent this information is available to the secretary. The department shall include security status definitions in the security guidelines it submits to the legislature pursuant to this section.

(2) In developing recommendations for the permissible ranges of confinement under this section the commission shall be subject to the following limitations:

(a) Where the maximum term in the range is ninety days or less, the minimum term in the range may be no less than fifty percent of the maximum term in the range;

(b) Where the maximum term in the range is greater than ninety days but not greater than one year, the minimum term in the range may be no less than seventy-five percent of the maximum term in the range; and

(c) Where the maximum term in the range is more than one year, the minimum term in the range may be no less than eighty percent of the maximum term in the range.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 13.40 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The secretary shall establish by January 31, 1995, a juvenile offender boot camp program located within the division of juvenile rehabilitation. The department shall locate the juvenile offender boot camp program in an underserved county and shall first attempt to site the juvenile offender boot camp in an abandoned military facility or in a facility currently not used by the state or a local government.

(2) The department shall adopt rules for the safe and effective operation of the juvenile offender boot camp program, standards for successful program completion, and rules for the continued aftercare supervision of offenders who have successfully completed the program. (3) The juvenile offender boot camp program shall be for a minimum of one hundred twenty days, and include training patterned after the training received in a United States military boot camp or another state's criminal offender boot camp program.

The juvenile offender boot camp program shall provide intensive physical training and work projects, strict dress and appearance codes, adult basic education leading to a general educational development certificate or high school diploma, computer education, alcohol and drug treatment and rehabilitation, preemployment and prerelease training, and life skills training.

The juvenile offender boot camp program shall have a curriculum training and work schedule that incorporates a balanced assignment of these rehabilitation and training components for no less than sixteen hours per day, six days a week.

(4) The sentencing judge may order placement of juvenile offenders to the juvenile offender boot camp program who are at least fourteen years of age but less than eighteen years of age at the time of adjudication and have been committed to the department as a serious offender or middle offender as defined in RCW 13.40.020 for a term of at least twelve weeks. The program shall focus on offenders who have committed gang and drug involved offenses.

(5) The sentencing judge may order that a juvenile be placed in the juvenile offender boot camp program even when the sentencing standards do not provide for a term of at least twelve weeks if the sentencing judge makes a finding that ordering a lesser term would create a manifest injustice. If the secretary determines that the offender would benefit from additional training, the secretary may extend the offender's stay in the program for up to one hundred eighty days.

(6) An offender who fails to work diligently and productively at the program or who fails to obey the established rules of behavior may be expelled from the program and required to spend the remainder of their sentence in an institutional facility. The remainder of their sentence shall be determined by assuming a one hundred eighty-day maximum sentence less the time the offender has already served.

(7) After an offender is released from the program, the department shall provide an aftercare component for reinforcing the lessons of the program, and assisting with his or her release into the community.

(8) No juvenile who suffers from any mental or physical problems that could endanger his or her health shall be admitted to or retained in the juvenile offender boot camp program. Any offender who becomes medically ineligible shall be removed from the juvenile offender boot camp program and placed in a secure detention until he or she is transferred to an equally restrictive commitment program to serve the remainder of his or her sentence.

(9) The department shall contract with private companies for the operations of the juvenile offender boot camp program.

(10) The department shall also develop and maintain a data base to measure recidivism rates specific to this incarceration program. The data base shall monitor all juvenile offenders sentenced to a juvenile offender boot camp for a period of one year after they have completed the program. The data base shall also maintain the criminal activity, educational progress, and employment activities of all juvenile offenders who participated in the program. The department shall produce an outcome evaluation report on the progress of the juvenile offender boot camp program to the appropriate committees of the legislature no later than December 12, 1996.