H-0630.1

HOUSE BILL 1640

ByRepresentatives Street, Santos, Mena, Doglio, Senn, Reed, Berry, Farivar, Simmons, Cortes, Ryu, Lekanoff, Ramel, Gregerson, Bateman, Pollet, Morgan, Macri, Fosse, and Kloba

AN ACT Relating to the governor's authority to grant pardons and commutations; amending RCW 9.94A.565 and 10.01.120; and reenacting and amending RCW 9.94A.728.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 9.94A.728 and 2021 c 311 s 19 and 2021 c 266 s 2 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) 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:

(a) An offender may earn early release time as authorized by RCW 9.94A.729;

(b) 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;

(c)(i) The secretary may authorize an extraordinary medical placement for an offender when all of the following conditions exist:

(A) The offender has a medical condition that is serious and is expected to require costly care or treatment;

(B) The offender poses a low risk to the community because ((he or she))the offender is currently physically incapacitated due to age or the medical condition or is expected to be so at the time of release; and

(C) It is expected that granting the extraordinary medical placement will result in a cost savings to the state.

(ii) An offender sentenced to death or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole is not eligible for an extraordinary medical placement.

(iii) 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.

(iv) The secretary may revoke an extraordinary medical placement under this subsection (1)(c) at any time.

(v) Persistent offenders are not eligible for extraordinary medical placement;

(d) 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;

(e) No more than the final twelve months of the offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement for aiding the offender with: Finding work as part of the work release program under chapter 72.65 RCW; or reestablishing himself or herself in the community 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);

(f)(i) No more than the final five months of the offender's term of confinement may be served in partial confinement as home detention as part of the graduated reentry program developed by the department under RCW 9.94A.733(1)(a);

(ii) For eligible offenders under RCW 9.94A.733(1)(b), after serving at least four months in total confinement in a state correctional facility, an offender may serve no more than the final 18 months of the offender's term of confinement in partial confinement as home detention as part of the graduated reentry program developed by the department;

(g) The governor may pardon any offender;

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

(i) An offender may leave a correctional facility prior to completion of ((his or her))the offender's sentence if the sentence has been reduced as provided in RCW 9.94A.870;

(j) 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; and

(k) Any person convicted of one or more crimes committed prior to the person's eighteenth birthday may be released from confinement pursuant to RCW 9.94A.730.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, an offender entitled to vacation of a conviction or the recalculation of ((his or her))the offender's offender score pursuant to State v. Blake, No. 96873-0 (Feb. 25, 2021), may be released from confinement pursuant to a court order if the offender has already served a period of confinement that exceeds ((his or her))the offender's new standard range. This provision does not create an independent right to release from confinement prior to resentencing.

(3) Offenders residing in a juvenile correctional facility placement pursuant to RCW 72.01.410(1)(a) are not subject to the limitations in this section.

Sec. 2. RCW 9.94A.565 and 1994 c 1 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Nothing in chapter 1, Laws of 1994 shall ever be interpreted or construed as to reduce or eliminate the power of the governor to grant a pardon or clemency to any offender ((on an individual case-by-case basis)). However, the people recommend that any offender subject to total confinement for life without the possibility of parole not be considered for release until the offender has reached the age of at least sixty years old and has been judged to be no longer a threat to society. The people further recommend that sex offenders be held to the utmost scrutiny under this subsection regardless of age.

(2) Nothing in this section shall ever be interpreted or construed to grant any release for the purpose of reducing prison overcrowding. Furthermore, the governor shall provide twice yearly reports on the activities and progress of offenders subject to total confinement for life without the possibility of parole who are released through executive action during ((his or her))the governor's tenure. These reports shall continue for not less than ten years after the release of the offender or upon the death of the released offender.

Sec. 3. RCW 10.01.120 and 2010 c 8 s 1003 are each amended to read as follows:

Whenever a prisoner has been sentenced to death, the governor shall have power to commute such sentence to imprisonment for life at hard labor; and in all cases in which the governor is authorized to grant pardons or commute sentence of death, ((he or she))the governor may, upon the petition of the person convicted, commute a sentence or grant a pardon, upon such conditions, and with such restrictions, and under such limitations as ((he or she))the governor may think proper; and ((he or she))the governor may issue ((his or her))a warrant to all proper officers to carry into effect such pardon or commutation, which warrant shall be obeyed and executed, instead of the sentence, if any, which was originally given. The governor may also, on good cause shown, grant respites or reprieves from time to time as ((he or she))the governor may think proper. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to limit the governor's authority to grant a pardon or commutation for a sentence, other than a sentence of death, regardless of whether the governor receives a petition from the person convicted.

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