Washington State House of Representatives Office of Program Research	BILL ANALYSIS
Criminal Justice & Corrections Committee

ESSB 5179

Brief Description:  Providing for victim notification.

Sponsors:  By Senate Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Senators Costa, Roach, Constantine, McCaslin, Fairley, Sheahan, Hargrove, Rasmussen, Kline, Gardner, Eide, Haugen, Franklin, Johnson, McAuliffe and Kohl‑Welles).

Brief Summary of Engrossed Substitute Bill

$Expands the statewide central booking and reporting system to include a victim notification system.

$Provides victims of crime notification of the release or transfer of an incarcerated person from a local incarceration facility.

Hearing Date:  3/19/01

Staff:  Yvonne Walker (786‑7841).

Background: 

By no later than December 31, 2001, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) must implement and operate a statewide central booking and reporting system.  The system must contain the following:

$each offense an arrested individual is being charged with;

$descriptive information about each offender such as the offender's name, vital statistics, address, and mugshot;

$any information about the offender while in jail, which could be used to protect criminal justice officials that have future contact with the offender, such as medical conditions and behavior problems;

$statistical data indicating the current capacity of each jail, and the quantity and category of offenses charged; and

$the ability to communicate directly and immediately with the city and county jails and other criminal justice entities.

The system is part of the Washington Justice Information Network and is capable of communicating electronically with every city and county jail and with all state criminal justice agencies located in Washington.  The system does not contain an electronic victim notification system capable of notifying a victim when an offender is about to be released or transferred to another form of confinement.

Summary of Bill: 

The date for the implementation and operation of the statewide central booking and reporting system is postponed until July 1, 2002.  The system is also expanded to include the date and time each offender is released or transferred from local incarceration as well as a victim notification system.  The victim notification system will provide victims of crime, who have made a notification request, with notification regarding the release or transfer of an incarcerated person from a local jail.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Requested on March 13, 2001.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.