BILL REQ. #:  H-1228.1 

Read first time 01/28/11.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to government liability for supervision of offenders; adding a new section to chapter 4.24 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature has enacted laws which require the state and local governments to supervise criminal offenders after their release from correctional facilities. These laws have been interpreted by our courts as giving rise to a duty that creates tort liability. The courts have expanded this duty to create liability for offender behavior that is unrelated to the criminal behavior for which the offender was placed on supervision. As the duty has expanded, claims for failure to supervise have increased, and these claims have become unrelated or minimally connected to the offense for which the offender is being supervised. The legislature intends to rebalance this interplay between duty and liability by focusing the state's duty on supervision of the offender for the actual criminal behavior that brought the offender into the criminal justice system and for which it may be properly said that the state has an identifiable duty.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 4.24 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The state, local governments, and their agencies, officers, and employees, are not liable for injuries caused by an offender under supervision if the offender's act causing the injuries does not have a substantial connection with the criminal act for which the offender is being supervised. A substantial connection exists only if the act resulting in the injury would constitute a criminal act prosecutable under the same chapter of the revised code of Washington as the crime for which the offender is being supervised, or if both the act resulting in the injury and the crime for which the offender is being supervised constitute serious violent offenses as defined by RCW 9.94A.030.
     (2) For the purposes of this section, supervision includes any type of community-based supervision including, but not limited to, probation, parole, community custody, community placement, community supervision, and postrelease supervision.
     (3) Nothing in this section diminishes any immunity or defense that may otherwise be applicable to the governmental entity or its past or present employees.