‘Swift and certain’ punishment would prevent crime, save taxpayer dollars

A new reform could save taxpayer money while doing a better job of preventing crime.

The success of “swift and certain” punishment in other states, and a Seattle pilot project involving released convicts under state supervision, convinced lawmakers to propose making Washington state the first in the nation to try it statewide with 16,000 released convicts under state supervision.

As this Associate Press story explains, ex-cons can face slow and uncertain punishment under today’s system. If they fail a drug test or otherwise violate their terms of release, the consequences range from a verbal reprimand to 60 days in jail.

While the current system is more expensive and can involve longer jail sentences, the experience of other states and the Seattle pilot program shows that swift and certain punishment works better.

Photo credit: Biswarup Ganguly

Any violation – from skipping a meeting with a corrections officer to flunking a drug test – gets a quick jail sentence of up to three days. More serious offenses can bring up to 30 days.

Switching to “swift and certain” punishment could keep ex-cons on the straight and narrow while saving taxpayers $15 million each year.

The idea started in a Hawaii courtroom when Judge Steven Alm got upset at watching ex-cons come to his courtroom only after they’d committed violation after violation. As a former prosecutor, he wanted to know why they weren’t coming to his courtroom on the first offense.

Probation officers told Judge Alm that each violation made officers choose between doing nothing and having an ex-con jailed for weeks – or months.
Judge Alm then started his “swift and certain” campaign, giving every violation, however minor, a short jail sentence. Ex-cons in the new HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement) regime responded with an 80 percent drop in positive drug tests. The rate of re-arrests for new crimes also went down.
“Swift and certain” worked in Hawaii, and then Alaska, Arizona and the Seattle pilot project.

As Judge Alm told the Associated Press, “When you don’t have any consequences for failure, you’re going to get more failure. With HOPE, it’s swift, certain and proportionate.”
The legislation is Senate Bill 6204, which passed the Senate 45-2 and passed the House Ways and Committee before the start of special session.

To read the full AP story, click here.

To read this post in Spanish, click here.

House Democrats hammer down on drunk driving

This year, 10,839 people will die in drunk-driving crashes in the U.S. – one death every 50 minutes, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

In our state there were 170 reported DUI fatalities in 2009 which, according to MADD, cost Washington state residents a whopping $935 million!

Rep. Roger Goodman decided enough is enough and introduced a package of DUI-related bills beefing up the consequences for drunk drivers. The bills were passed out of the House today.

• HB 2443 strengthens Washington’s nation-leading ignition-interlock program by adding cameras to the devices—at no cost to the state—to prevent offenders from gaming the system.

• HB 2302 increases financial penalties for  drunk driving offenses when a child under age 16 is in the car—and triples the amount of time an ignition interlock device must be on the offender’s vehicles, from 60 days to six months.

• HB 2176 prevents drunk drivers who kill or harm from using the statute of limitations to duck court-ordered payments to victims.

• HB 2405 allows courts to order drunk drivers who kill a parent to pay child support for the victim’s minor children.

First-time DUI offenders will also pay far more for their crimes if the reforms passed by the House today become law.  The House voted 85-11 for HB 1556, authored by Rep. Steve Kirby, which  triples the mandatory minimum sentence for a first-time DUI offense from one day to three days in jail. The bill also requires the offender to pay for the cost of incarceration.

“A day in jail simply isn’t enough,” said Kirby. “A slap on the hand doesn’t get anybody’s attention anymore.  We need to send a message that we’re serious about cracking down on people who drive drunk.”

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Stopping cyber scams

Malicious identity thieves on Facebook, Twitter, craigslist and other social networks and online services would face greater legal penalties under a bill passed by the House Jan. 23.

The bill makes harmful electronic impersonation a civil offense, meaning a victim can sue the impersonator. It would add another level of protection to existing privacy laws.

“We’ve had some awful stories, in fact that sometimes have led to suicides, with abuse of social networking, including deception and harassment and fraud and intimidation,” Rep. Roger Goodman of Kirkland said during floor debate on the bill.

The bill was approved 95-0 and moves to the Senate. It was originally sponsored in 2011 by then-Rep. David Frockt of Seattle, who is now a senator.

To read a newspaper article on the bill written before the House vote, click here.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Rep. Goodman reintroduces bill protecting rape victims from their assailant in the courtroom

KOMO 4 News reports on a bill introduced this week to offer more legal protection to victims of rape, shielding them from coming face-to-face with their alleged assailant in the courtroom.



The bill was first introduced last year by outgoing Rep. Brendan Williams. "I've heard heart-wrenching stories of sexual abuse survivors being revictimized in a courtroom by their abusers," said Williams. "Our justice system cannot endorse courtroom theater that leaves witnesses incapacitated with fear and unable to testify."

It passed the House but failed to pass the Senate. Now, Roger is taking up the mantle from Williams and plans to finish the job this session by reintroducing the legislation on the first possible day. "The rapists acting as their own attorney aren't trying to be found innocent by the jury," Goodman said. "They're taking one last chance to be in control of their victims again. It's sadistic and wrong."

HB 1001 direct the courts to develop rules so that judges could (a) order a stand-in attorney to question rape victims or (b) have accused rapists question victims by closed-circuit television.

Changes in bail practices to be discussed today

Following the police officer shootings in Lakewood last year, Rep. Troy Kelley, passed legislation to end the practice of booking bail (which allowed Maurice Clemmons, the man who killed the Lakewood officers, to post bail without ever seeing a judge). Kelley also passed an amendment to our state constitution intended to provide judges more flexibility in denying bail. In November, voters will have the opportunity to vote on the amendment which allows judges the right to deny bail to suspects who are charged with a crime punishable by the possibility of life in prison.

A new Bail Practices Work Group will oversee some of these changes in how bail is set. The work group is meeting for the first time this morning in SeaTac.

The half time report

Yesterday was cutoff. Here's a brief recap of what we've done so far this session:

Balancing the budget
The Governor has already signed three measures we passed to reduce spending in this biennial budget:
HB 2921 orders reductions in agency spending.
HB 2998 suspends performance bonuses and salary increases for many state employees.
SB 6382 extends the ban on hiring, travel, contracting, and purchases.

Putting Washington back to work
The JOBS Act of 2010 will, if approved by voters, create at least 38,000 jobs around the state while making our public schools safer, healthier, and more energy efficient.

Washington Works Housing Act will put an additional 10,000 construction workers back to work building affordable housing so people like nurses, police officers, and teachers can live closer to their jobs.

Educating our kids
We began implementing the recommendations of the Quality Education Council for school funding, including the phase-in of 15-student sized classes for kindergarten through 3rd grade and increasing the state funding of maintenance and operations costs. (HB 2776)

We gave individual school districts the flexibility to ask their voters for more levy money, and we allocated an additional $51 million in levy equalization to property-poor districts. (HB 2893 & 2670)

Community safety
We toughened bail procedures in our state, making sure all suspects must appear before a judge before being released on bond, and giving judges the discretion to deny bail in certain cases. (HB 2625 and HJR 4220)

Very few people with mental illness are dangerous to themselves or others, but we must have earlier interventions under the Involuntary Treatment Act for those who are. (HB 3076)

We authorized $25 million to speed the maintenance and repair of levees critical to protecting the citizens and businesses that reside in the Green River Valley. (HB 2787)

Reforming government
The Security Lifeline reforms the way safety net services are delivered by stressing quicker transitions to self-sufficiency and better utilizations of state and federal dollars. (HB 2782)

We are also redesigning the delivery of temporary assistance to needy families in a manner that makes optimum use of all funds available to promote more families moving more quickly to self-sufficiency. (HB 3141)

Numerous boards, commissions, and agency functions are eliminated, consolidated, and/or streamlined. (HB 3132, 3023, 2969, 2957, 2935, 2902, 2704, 2863)

State Rep. Eric Pettigrew counters youth violence with street outreach

In response to continued youth and gang violence statewide, Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) focused on a preventative rather than punitive approach to the problem.

Last year, Pettigrew led an effort to secure approximately $3.7 million from the Washington auto theft prevention authority account for competitive grants to community-based organizations. Today, that money has translated into increased services for 565 at-risk youth.

Provided intervention services included individual needs assessment and support in accessing services, job searching assistance, encouraging participation in school and positive activities, and street outreach.

Aimed at helping young people who are the hardest to relate to and most difficult to reach, Pettigrew strengthened preventive measures by helping fund “foot soldiers,” which are people and organizations that directly interact with at-risk youth on the streets.

“As complicated as it might be, it all boils down to one simple formula,” Pettigrew said. “It’s about helping those young people relate to someone who will have an influence on their lives.” Pettigrew said that the secured funding was an attempt to work in collaboration with some of the more established non-profit organizations and support foot soldiers’ efforts as a way to build relationships with at-risk youth.

Pettigrew said that these services aren’t aimed at the young people typically found at traditional outreach facilities such as the Boys & Girls Club. Instead, the focus is on young people who have been in the system or come from families that have been in the system. This population often doesn’t have the support networks to prevent them from being involved in criminal activities.

“I was one of those young people,” said J’Quai Holiday, 27, and participant in the Alive and Free Program, which is a street outreach program through the Metrocenter YMCA in Seattle. “I grew up in a broken home. I’ve always wanted to do something different, but the community and the environment I was in just didn’t provide that for me so I was drawn into the types of activities that I’m fighting now. I do Alive and Free because I know that it works-it saved my life.”

Pettigrew said that he will continue advocating for at-risk youth by working to maintain strong support for prevention efforts such as street outreach programs.

#hdcblueride: Lawmakers to join Law Enforcement on the front lines this weekend

It was an emotional week in the Legislature as we honored the law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty this past year. As the families and colleagues of the slain officers bore witness, lawmakers passed new measures in order to protect them and their families, as well as increase public safety.

In order to show their gratitude another way, several House Democrats will participate in ride-alongs with their local law enforcement and State Patrol this weekend.

Ride-alongs are one of the best ways to fully grasp what those on the frontline of our security deal with day in and day out. Those participating will see the best - and sometimes the worst - of humanity on display. They’ll see and confront firsthand for a few hours what the people behind the badge see and confront 24-7.

Those joining their local law enforcement are:

• Rep. Jim Moeller: Vancouver PD – Saturday, 9am to Noon
• Rep. Marko Liias: WA State Patrol – Saturday, 6pm-10pm
• Rep. John McCoy: Snohomish Co.Sheriff Dept.– Friday, 6pm-8pm (Legislative action permitting)
• Rep. Jeff Morris: Skagit Co. Sheriff Dept. – Saturday, 9am to Noon
  

Here’s Jim Moeller on the impetus behind the idea:

“We talk very often in the Legislature about the importance of public safety. I want to acquire a concrete feeling for what life is like for the people who are willing to put their lives on the line for me every day. Some of us were talking the other morning about the specific, real-world ways that the budget crisis is manifesting itself in the lives of every single citizen. Public safety came up as a very good, and certainly a very concrete example of the money we invest in public programs and services."

Moeller and the other legislators will post regular updates from their ride-alongs. Follow along as the legislators provide updates from their beats via Twitter with the hashtags: #hdcblueride and #waleg

Reducing prison beds in our state – what do you think?

During the 2009 session, the Legislature asked the Office of Financial Management to draft recommendations for closing or consolidating institutions in the Department of Corrections, and in the Department of Social and Health Services’ Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration and Division of Developmental Disabilities programs.

These reductions had to consider capital costs, economic impacts on communities, impacts on facility staff, projected savings and availability of alternative services for individuals with developmental disabilities.

The consultant hired to manage the review issued their preliminary report last month, causing quite a stir in numerous local papers. The final report was issued this week and the Legislature will take it under consideration in January.

As the list below shows, the prisons population in Washington has climbed precipitously the last few years – we incarcerate nearly three times as many people today than in the 1980s, despite the fact that crime has actually decreased.

Prison inmates per 1,000 residents (18 to 49 years old)
1980: 2.3
1990: 3.1
2000: 5.2
2006: 6.1
2020: 7.5*
2030: 7.7*

(*forecasted rates, if policies stay the same)

Why? A big reason is mandatory sentences for non-violent drug crimes.

The increased prison population comes at an increased cost. Each prison cell costs about $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to build and each prisoner costs about $35,000 per year to feed, clothe and guard.

To make our streets safer, lawmakers have passed reforms over the last decade to give longer prison sentences to sex offenders and violent criminals. To make room for these bad guys, we are helping non-violent drug offenders get clean and stay out of jail.

Now, with the budget so tight, some are suggesting additional reforms, such as giving judges more leeway when they hand down sentences instead of making it strictly a mathematical process. This is in addition to the three options for DOC and DSHS facilities recommended in the study. Stay tuned!

Lawmakers to discuss more flexibility for judges, more plea options for defendents

Should judges get more discretion when handing down sentences -- and should juries have another option aside from not guilty, guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity?

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 Washington 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.

Rep. White wants to expand hate-crime legislation to protect the homeless

State Rep. Scott White never forgot David Ballenger, a homeless man who was brutally murdered by three teenagers under an I-5 overpass in the Ravenna neighborhood 10 years ago this month.

When the National Coalition for the Homeless released an Aug. 7 report on the growing number of violent hate crimes against the homeless — Hate, Violence, And Death on Main Street USA — White was struck by how closely the murder of Ballenger fit the typical profile of today's growing violence against homeless individuals: the report showed that most (58 percent) of the violent attacks on the homeless are committed by teenagers, and bias is often the only motivation for the attacks.

The new national report also showed that the number of fatal attacks on homeless individuals over the past decade was more than twice the total number of hate-motivated homicides that targeted victims because of their perceived race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

The ten-year pattern of hate crimes against America's homeless, which has claimed 242 lives, convinced White that homeless people in Washington need the protection of the state's malicious harassment laws.

Seattle added homeless people to the city's malicious harassment statute in December, 2007. White said he is proud that Seattle is a leader in fighting hate crimes against the homeless, but that "now it is time to make our state a national leader."

We have a moral duty to do everything in our power to make sure that what happened to David Ballenger never happens again anywhere in Washington.

Teenager's death inspired bill to empower victims and their families

Going into effect on Aug. 1, House Bill 1076 will require the Department of Corrections to consider feedback from crime victims when determining work-release placements for offenders. Rep. Christine Rolfes introduced the bill after learning that offenders and victims could end up nearby each other, leading to uncomfortable situations.

Rolfes notes that HB 1076 would not have happened without the passion and involvement of constituent Nora Sizemore, whose teenage son Kyle was killed in an automobile accident in 2005. The offender was eventually offered work release nearby in Sizemore’s community, which resulted in uncomfortable, tense situations for Sizemore and her family.

“For us, having the person who killed our son serving his prison sentence a mile from our home was a nightmare. It was like nobody cared at all about our condition or how we felt as we dealt with our tragedy,” Sizemore said. “With this bill, families will have a good amount of time to prepare and say what they want to say. And in some cases, this could be a matter of being kept safe and protected.”

Under current law, DOC is required only to inform the victim that the work release is happening. Now that feedback must be considered, DOC could change its preliminary decision based on the input.

Today's Must Read: What About Community Safety?

We commend Ian Demsky at The News Tribune for his story today, What About Community Safety?, an insightful look into a state Corrections program facing elimination as a cost-saving measure the Legislature is considering to help fill the budget gap.

To fill an $8 billion - and growing - budget deficit means some extremely tough cuts. Senate bill 5288 seeks to save around $80 million over the next four years by reducing the supervision of low- and moderate-risk parolees and offenders who have been released. That also means the elimination of 190 Corrections department jobs.

Demsky's story follows one of those corrections officers, Russell Alfaro, on his daily routine as he meets with released offenders.

When dealing with a budget in the billions, an avalanche of statistics, and hundreds of bills still in play, we appreciate Demsky's effort to put a human face on the numbers helping to reveal the human element hidden within them.

Puyallup Police + Rep. Morrell = New State Laws

What do the City of Puyallup Police Department and Rep. Dawn Morrell have in common? Two recent state laws, working on three.

For the third year in a row, the Puyallup Police Department is asking Morrell to pass a law to help them protect the public. In 2007, they asked for a new law to make it harder for metal thieves to fence their stolen goods. Morrell got it passed.

In 2008, they asked for an expanded metal theft law to target the theft of catalytic converters. Morrell got it passed into law. This year, the department is asking Morrell to strengthen state laws against child abandonment.

The Puyallup Police Department request responds to a growing number of cases where young children are abandoned for hours and put at risk of harm. In one case, a 22-month-old boy nearly died in a Puyallup apartment fire after his mother had abandoned him and left a cigarette burning in order to drive to an Arby's for a meal.

The problem is that current law makes it hard to prosecute child abandonment cases where criminal negligence creates a risk of bodily injury, but no serious injury actually occurs.

Today, Morrell proposed the solution requested by the police department: a new law of child abandonment in the fourth degree that would make it a misdemeanor to abandon a child with criminal negligence that puts the child at risk of bodily harm.

According to Morrell, "it isn't enough to have child abandonment laws that respond after the fact to the tragedy of a child's death or serious injury. We need a law that can help prevent tragedies before more children suffer."

Will Morrell succeed in helping the Puyallup Police Department get a new law enacted for the third straight year? Stay tuned. Morrell's House Bill 1234 has been referred to the House Committee Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness for consideration.

New tool to prevent DUI-related deaths takes effect

Rep. Roger Goodman recently held a press conference with the Washington State Patrol and the Department of Licensing to announce the release of the ignition interlock license -- putting alcohol-detecting devices in the cars of people who have driven drunk.


Estimating with results in Arizona, around 100 lives could be saved this year alone.

“We already know that we can't trust known drunk drivers to obey the law," Goodman said, "so while we'll still be tough on them we're also going to be smart by using innovative technology, and this new approach should save countless lives.”

Here an ignition interlock device manufacturer demonstrates the process:


And here is the full press release from the WSP on the event for more information:
STATE’S NEW INTERLOCK LAW GOES INTO EFFECT JAN. 1