CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

 

                        HOUSE BILL 1297

 

 

                    Chapter 37, Laws of 1999

 

 

                        56th Legislature

                      1999 Regular Session

 

 

EARNED EARLY RELEASE TIME

 

 

 

                    EFFECTIVE DATE:  7/25/99

Passed by the House February 24, 1999

  Yeas 97   Nays 0

 

 

             CLYDE BALLARD

Speaker of the House of Representatives

     

 

 

              FRANK CHOPP

Speaker of the House of Representatives

 

 

 

Passed by the Senate April 6, 1999

  Yeas 42   Nays 0

             CERTIFICATE

 

We, Dean R. Foster and Timothy A. Martin, Co-Chief Clerks of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 1297  as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.

 

 

 

           DEAN R. FOSTER

                          Chief Clerk

 

 

          TIMOTHY A. MARTIN

                          Chief Clerk

               BRAD OWEN

President of the Senate

 

 

 

Approved April 19, 1999 Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.         

                                FILED                

 

           April 19, 1999 - 3:17 p.m.

 

              GARY LOCKE

Governor of the State of Washington

                 Secretary of State

                 State of Washington


          _______________________________________________

 

                          HOUSE BILL 1297

          _______________________________________________

 

             Passed Legislature - 1999 Regular Session

 

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

 

By Representatives O'Brien, Ballasiotes, Lovick, Cairnes, Kagi, Campbell and Benson

 

Read first time 01/21/1999.  Referred to Committee on Criminal Justice & Corrections.

Clarifying the application of limitations on earned early release time to serious violent offenders. 


    AN ACT Relating to earned early release time; and amending RCW 9.94A.150.

 

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

 

    Sec. 1.  RCW 9.94A.150 and 1996 c 199 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

    No person serving a sentence imposed pursuant to this chapter and committed to the custody of the department shall leave the confines of the correctional facility or be released prior to the expiration of the sentence except as follows:

    (1) Except as otherwise provided for in subsection (2) of this section, the term of the sentence of an offender committed to a correctional facility operated by the department, may be reduced by earned early release time in accordance with procedures that shall be developed and promulgated by the correctional agency having jurisdiction in which the offender is confined.  The earned early release time shall be for good behavior and good performance, as determined by the correctional agency having jurisdiction.  The correctional agency shall not credit the offender with earned early release credits in advance of the offender actually earning the credits.  Any program established pursuant to this section shall allow an offender to earn early release credits for presentence incarceration.  If an offender is transferred from a county jail to the department of corrections, the county jail facility shall certify to the department the amount of time spent in custody at the facility and the amount of earned early release time.  In the case of an offender who has been convicted of a felony committed after July 23, 1995, that involves any applicable deadly weapon enhancements under RCW 9.94A.310 (3) or (4), or both, shall not receive any good time credits or earned early release time for that portion of his or her sentence that results from any deadly weapon enhancements.  In the case of an offender convicted of a serious violent offense, or a sex offense that is a class A felony, committed on or after July 1, 1990, the aggregate earned early release time may not exceed fifteen percent of the sentence.  In no other case shall the aggregate earned early release time exceed one-third of the total sentence;

    (2) A person convicted of a sex offense or an offense categorized as a serious violent offense, assault in the second degree, vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, assault of a child in the second degree, any crime against a person where it is determined in accordance with RCW 9.94A.125 that the defendant or an accomplice was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of commission, or any felony offense under chapter 69.50 or 69.52 RCW may become eligible, in accordance with a program developed by the department, for transfer to community custody status in lieu of earned early release time pursuant to subsection (1) of this section;

    (3) An offender may leave a correctional facility pursuant to an authorized furlough or leave of absence.  In addition, offenders may leave a correctional facility when in the custody of a corrections officer or officers;

    (4) The governor, upon recommendation from the clemency and pardons board, may grant an extraordinary release for reasons of serious health problems, senility, advanced age, extraordinary meritorious acts, or other extraordinary circumstances;

    (5) No more than the final six months of the sentence may be served in partial confinement designed to aid the offender in finding work and reestablishing himself or herself in the community;

    (6) The governor may pardon any offender;

    (7) The department of corrections may release an offender from confinement any time within ten days before a release date calculated under this section; and

    (8) An offender may leave a correctional facility prior to completion of his sentence if the sentence has been reduced as provided in RCW 9.94A.160.

    Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, an offender sentenced for a felony crime listed in RCW 9.94A.120(4) as subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of total confinement shall not be released from total confinement before the completion of the listed mandatory minimum sentence for that felony crime of conviction unless allowed under RCW 9.94A.120(4).


    Passed the House February 24, 1999.

    Passed the Senate April 6, 1999.

Approved by the Governor April 19, 1999.

    Filed in Office of Secretary of State April 19, 1999.