S-6048.2

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6476

BySenate Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation (originally sponsored by Senators Stanford, Darneille, Wilson, C., Nguyen, Hasegawa, and Saldaña)

AN ACT Relating to increasing and expanding access of inmates and immediate family members of inmates to services provided within correctional facilities; amending RCW 72.09.015; adding new sections to chapter 72.09 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

Sec. 2. RCW 72.09.015 and 2013 c 39 s 22 are each amended to read as follows:

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Adult basic education" means education or instruction designed to achieve general competence of skills in reading, writing, and oral communication, including English as a second language and preparation and testing services for obtaining a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate as provided in RCW 28B.50.536.

(2) "Base level of correctional services" means the minimum level of field services the department of corrections is required by statute to provide for the supervision and monitoring of offenders.

(3) "Civil judgment for assault" means a civil judgment for monetary damages awarded to a correctional officer or department employee entered by a court of competent jurisdiction against an inmate that is based on, or arises from, injury to the correctional officer or department employee caused by the inmate while the correctional officer or department employee was acting in the course and scope of his or her employment.

(4) "Community custody" has the same meaning as that provided in RCW 9.94A.030 and also includes community placement and community supervision as defined in RCW 9.94B.020.

(5) "Contraband" means any object or communication the secretary determines shall not be allowed to be: (a) Brought into; (b) possessed while on the grounds of; or (c) sent from any institution under the control of the secretary.

(6) "Correctional facility" means a facility or institution operated directly or by contract by the secretary for the purposes of incarcerating adults in total or partial confinement, as defined in RCW 9.94A.030.

(7) "County" means a county or combination of counties.

(8) "Department" means the department of corrections.

(9) "Earned early release" means earned release as authorized by RCW 9.94A.729.

(10) "Evidence-based" means a program or practice that has had multiple-site random controlled trials across heterogeneous populations demonstrating that the program or practice is effective in reducing recidivism for the population.

(11) "Extended family visit" means an authorized visit between an inmate and a member of his or her immediate family that occurs in a private visiting unit located at the correctional facility where the inmate is confined.

(12) "Good conduct" means compliance with department rules and policies.

(13) "Good performance" means successful completion of a program required by the department, including an education, work, or other program.

(14) "Immediate family" means the inmate's children, stepchildren, grandchildren, great grandchildren, parents, stepparents, grandparents, great grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and a person legally married to or in a state registered domestic partnership with an inmate. "Immediate family" includes the immediate family of an inmate who was adopted as a child or an adult, but does not include an inmate adopted by another inmate ((or the immediate family of the adopted or adopting inmate)).

(15) "Indigent inmate," "indigent," and "indigency" mean an inmate who has less than a ((ten-dollar))twenty-five dollar balance of disposable income in his or her institutional account on the day a request is made to utilize funds and during the thirty days previous to the request.

(16) "Individual reentry plan" means the plan to prepare an offender for release into the community. It should be developed collaboratively between the department and the offender and based on an assessment of the offender using a standardized and comprehensive tool to identify the offender's risks and needs. The individual reentry plan describes actions that should occur to prepare individual offenders for release from prison or jail, specifies the supervision and services they will experience in the community, and describes an offender's eventual discharge to aftercare upon successful completion of supervision. An individual reentry plan is updated throughout the period of an offender's incarceration and supervision to be relevant to the offender's current needs and risks.

(17) "Inmate" means a person committed to the custody of the department, including but not limited to persons residing in a correctional institution or facility and persons released from such facility on furlough, work release, or community custody, and persons received from another state, state agency, county, or federal jurisdiction.

(18) "Labor" means the period of time before a birth during which contractions are of sufficient frequency, intensity, and duration to bring about effacement and progressive dilation of the cervix.

(19) "Physical restraint" means the use of any bodily force or physical intervention to control an offender or limit an offender's freedom of movement in a way that does not involve a mechanical restraint. Physical restraint does not include momentary periods of minimal physical restriction by direct person-to-person contact, without the aid of mechanical restraint, accomplished with limited force and designed to:

(a) Prevent an offender from completing an act that would result in potential bodily harm to self or others or damage property;

(b) Remove a disruptive offender who is unwilling to leave the area voluntarily; or

(c) Guide an offender from one location to another.

(20) "Postpartum recovery" means (a) the entire period a woman or youth is in the hospital, birthing center, or clinic after giving birth and (b) an additional time period, if any, a treating physician determines is necessary for healing after the woman or youth leaves the hospital, birthing center, or clinic.

(21) "Privilege" means any goods or services, education or work programs, or earned early release days, the receipt of which are directly linked to an inmate's (a) good conduct; and (b) good performance. Privileges do not include any goods or services the department is required to provide under the state or federal Constitution or under state or federal law.

(22) "Promising practice" means a practice that presents, based on preliminary information, potential for becoming a research-based or consensus-based practice.

(23) "Research-based" means a program or practice that has some research demonstrating effectiveness, but that does not yet meet the standard of evidence-based practices.

(24) "Restraints" means anything used to control the movement of a person's body or limbs and includes:

(a) Physical restraint; or

(b) Mechanical device including but not limited to: Metal handcuffs, plastic ties, ankle restraints, leather cuffs, other hospital-type restraints, tasers, or batons.

(25) "Secretary" means the secretary of corrections or his or her designee.

(26) "Significant expansion" includes any expansion into a new product line or service to the class I business that results from an increase in benefits provided by the department, including a decrease in labor costs, rent, or utility rates (for water, sewer, electricity, and disposal), an increase in work program space, tax advantages, or other overhead costs.

(27) "Superintendent" means the superintendent of a correctional facility under the jurisdiction of the Washington state department of corrections, or his or her designee.

(28) "Transportation" means the conveying, by any means, of an incarcerated pregnant woman or youth from the correctional facility to another location from the moment she leaves the correctional facility to the time of arrival at the other location, and includes the escorting of the pregnant incarcerated woman or youth from the correctional facility to a transport vehicle and from the vehicle to the other location.

(29) "Unfair competition" means any net competitive advantage that a business may acquire as a result of a correctional industries contract, including labor costs, rent, tax advantages, utility rates (water, sewer, electricity, and disposal), and other overhead costs. To determine net competitive advantage, the department of corrections shall review and quantify any expenses unique to operating a for-profit business inside a prison.

(30) "Vocational training" or "vocational education" means "vocational education" as defined in RCW 72.62.020.

(31) "Washington business" means an in-state manufacturer or service provider subject to chapter 82.04 RCW existing on June 10, 2004.

(32) "Work programs" means all classes of correctional industries jobs authorized under RCW 72.09.100.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 72.09 RCW to read as follows:

(1) In providing access to the facility commissary program in state correctional facilities, the department is strongly encouraged to provide, at a minimum, weekly access to the facility commissary program across all departmental institutions of total confinement. The department may not reduce frequency at departmental institutions that have weekly access to the facility commissary program as of the effective date of this section.

(2) By December 1, 2020, the department must provide access to the facility commissary program at least twenty-six times per year or once every two weeks at all institutions of total confinement.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 72.09 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Any contract to provide inmates with access to telecommunication services and electronic media services in state correctional facilities shall be made publicly available and posted on the department's web site.

(2) The information in this subsection from the contract shall be prominently displayed on the department's public web site:

(a) Rates for facilitating telecommunication services including, but not limited to, phone calls, video visitation, videograms and video clips, emails, and accessing music and entertainment;

(b) Fees charged for money transfers and transactions, maintenance of financial accounts, and any other fee charged to the user to facilitate the money transfer or online deposit account; and

(c) All fees or costs charged to the inmate or customer in exchange for use of telecommunication or electronic media services through the contract.

(3) By July 1st of each year, the contractor that provides inmates with access to telecommunication services and electronic media services under subsection (1) of this section shall report to the department the following information:

(a) A summary of services offered at each correctional facility;

(b) Rates charged for, or associated with, providing each type of service including, but not limited to, monthly financial account maintenance fees, transaction fees associated with money transfers, per call and connection surcharges, bill statement fees, and refund fees;

(c) A total accounting of commissions provided to the department or correctional facility;

(d) A summary and accounting of services used by inmates categorized as indigent;

(e) One-time and ongoing costs incurred for installing and maintaining hardware;

(f) Average customer service response time rates per facility and the average time taken to resolve an issue or provide a refund for defective services; and

(g) An accounting of all revenues or losses incurred by the contractor by quarter.

(4) By November 1st of each year, and in compliance with RCW 43.01.036, the department shall report to the governor and legislature on contracts for telecommunication services and electronic media services under this section and the contractor's annual compliance with this section.

(5) This section applies to any contract in effect on the effective date of this section, and to any renegotiation, renewal, or extension of such contract.

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