BILL REQ. #:  S-4497.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/03/12.   

     AN ACT Relating to the early release offenders; amending RCW 9.94A.728; and adding a new section to chapter 9.94A RCW.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 9.94A.728 and 2010 c 224 s 6 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) An offender may earn early release time as authorized by RCW 9.94A.729;
     (2) 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;
     (3)(((a))) The ((secretary may authorize)) offender is granted an extraordinary medical placement ((for an offender when all of the following conditions exist:
     (i) The offender has a medical condition that is serious and is expected to require costly care or treatment;
     (ii) The offender poses a low risk to the community because he or she is currently physically incapacitated due to age or the medical condition or is expected to be so at the time of release; and
     (iii) It is expected that granting the extraordinary medical placement will result in a cost savings to the state.
     (b) An offender sentenced to death or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole is not eligible for an extraordinary medical placement.
     (c) The secretary shall require electronic monitoring for all offenders in extraordinary medical placement unless the electronic monitoring equipment interferes with the function of the offender's medical equipment or results in the loss of funding for the offender's medical care, in which case, an alternative type of monitoring shall be utilized. The secretary shall specify who shall provide the monitoring services and the terms under which the monitoring shall be performed.
     (d) The secretary may revoke an extraordinary medical placement under this subsection at any time.
     (e) Persistent offenders are not eligible for extraordinary medical placement)) pursuant to section 2 of this act;
     (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 offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement designed to aid the offender in finding work and reestablishing himself or herself in the community or no more than the final twelve months of the offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement as part of the parenting program in RCW 9.94A.6551. This is in addition to that period of earned early release time that may be exchanged for partial confinement pursuant to RCW 9.94A.729(5)(d);
     (6) The governor may pardon any offender;
     (7) The department may release an offender from confinement any time within ten days before a release date calculated under this section;
     (8) An offender may leave a correctional facility prior to completion of his or her sentence if the sentence has been reduced as provided in RCW 9.94A.870; and
     (9) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, an offender sentenced for a felony crime listed in RCW 9.94A.540 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.540.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 9.94A RCW to read as follows:
     (1) An offender is eligible for consideration for extraordinary medical placement upon written certification by a department-approved licensed treating physician that, within a reasonable degree of certainty, one of the following circumstances exist:
     (a) The offender has a serious incapacitating medical need;
     (b) The offender is incapacitated by age to the extent that his or her physical or mental health is substantially diminished;
     (c) The offender is permanently physically incapacitated; or
     (d) The offender suffers from a terminal illness caused by injury or disease that is predicted to result in death within twelve months of the application for extraordinary medical placement.
     (2) The secretary may transfer an offender to extraordinary medical placement if one of the conditions in subsection (1) of this section applies and:
     (a) The offender is not sentenced to death or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole; and
     (b) The offender has a release plan with adequate living arrangements in the community.
     (3) While in the community on extraordinary medical placement, the department shall:
     (a) Unless the offender is assessed at a low risk to reoffend, require the offender to be placed on electronic home monitoring unless the electronic monitoring equipment interferes with the function of the offender's medical equipment or results in the loss of funding for the offender's medical care, in which case, an alternative type of monitoring shall be utilized;
     (b) Apply other terms and conditions to the offender's placement as deemed appropriate by the secretary; and
     (c) Assign a community corrections officer who will monitor the offender's compliance with the terms and conditions of the placement.
     (4) The secretary may revoke an extraordinary medical placement at any time.
     (5) Nothing in this section is intended to create an expectation of release or continued release on extraordinary medical placement or create an entitlement or liberty interest.
     (6) The state and its officers, agents, and employees may not be held criminally or civilly liable for a determination or placement under this section unless the state or its officers, agents, and employees acted with reckless disregard of a known risk.