SENATE BILL REPORT
SB 6131
BYSenators Deccio and Johnson
Revising provisions relating to county jails.
Senate Committee on Health Care & Corrections
Senate Hearing Date(s):January 21, 1988
Majority Report: That Substitute Senate Bill No. 6131 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.
Signed by Senators Deccio, Chairman; Johnson, Vice Chairman; Kreidler, Niemi, Smith, West, Wojahn.
Senate Staff:Dee Knapp (786-7452)
January 21, 1988
AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH CARE & CORRECTIONS, JANUARY 21, 1988
BACKGROUND:
County jail inmates are currently released when their sentence expires at the same time of day they were admitted. This means that if a person comes into jail at 3:00 a.m., release time will also be at 3:00 a.m. In other words, credit for time served in jail is figured on a 24 hour clock.
This creates problems for the community when those people who have no transportation or friends to meet them are released into what may be a downtown area in the middle of the night.
Jail overcrowding occurs when a person is not released earlier because an additional bed for the night is taken for only part of the night.
SUMMARY:
If a person's term of confinement is scheduled to end between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., the county jail has the discretion to release the person at 5:00 p.m.
EFFECT OF PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE:
This section does not apply to persons required to serve confinement time in consecutive hours under the mandatory sentencing provisions of the Driving While Intoxicated statute.
Appropriation: none
Revenue: none
Fiscal Note: available
Senate Committee - Testified: Kurt Sharar, Washington State Association of Counties; Jim Rabie, Washington State Law Enforcement Association; Mike Redman, Prosecuting Attorneys Association