Lawmakers are considering both issues today when the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee meets at noon.
Giving judges more flexibility
One of the reasons the number of prisoners in Washington state have tripled -- despite crime dropping to historic lows -- is that laws passed in the early 1990s required judges to hand down mandatory sentences for non-violent drug offenses. Are those long mandatory sentences cost-effective? Or should we give judges more flexibility, to give shorter sentences or longer sentences, depending on the circumstances?
One example of disparity is in other states, the severity of your prison sentence for drug delivery depends upon how much illegal drug you were caught with. Two kilograms of cocaine will get you a much longer sentence than two grams of cocaine. That's not how Wa
shington state law is set up, and proponents of reform say that bigger dealers and small-timers shouldn't get the same long, one-size-fits-all sentence. Big dealers should do more time; small-timers should get less time.Insanity defense
Here's some background on the insanity issue: Phillip Paul strangled and killed a 78-year-old woman, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity – and instead of going to prison, he went to a mental hospital and a halfway house, where he fathered a child. While in the mental hospital, he escaped twice. The first time he escaped, Paul put a sheriff's deputy in the hospital.
Earlier this year, Paul escaped from a field trip to the Spokane County Fair and was captured 200 miles away, armed with a sharp weapon and captured by the sheriff deputy who Paul put in the hospital the last time he escaped.
Under Washington state law, a defendant may plead “not guilty by reason of insanity” by asserting that they suffer from a mental illness that either 1) caused them not to know the nature or quality of the criminal act they are accused of, or 2) they did not know right from wrong while they committed it.
When a defendant asserts this defense, the judge or jury is left with only two options; finding the defendant guilty of the crime charged, resulting in prison, or “not guilty by reason of insanity,” resulting in a hospital stay as a medical patient.
Proponents of reform say other states give juries another, smarter option for dealing with people like Phillip Paul: guilty but mentally ill. People convicted under this option aren't treated like regular inmates, nor are they treated like normal, non-criminal mental patients.
Interested in listening in on the hearing? TVW will be airing it live.
