Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 18, 1998
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Governor proposes sweeping reform of criminal offender supervision

TACOMA - Gov. Gary Locke today proposed major reforms in the way Washington holds criminals accountable for good behavior after their release from prison.

Locke said his plan marks the most important change in the state's role in crime control since the early 1980s, when the Legislature reformed felony sentencing and made sure violent offenders do time for their crimes.

"Criminals who serve their sentences have the right to freedom when they are released, but we have the right to ensure they don't threaten our families or our businesses when they are allowed back into our communities," Locke said.

Without changing prison or jail sentences, the governor's Offender Accountability Act would strengthen the state's authority to prevent convicted felons from committing additional crimes after release.

The crime-fighting measure that Locke will send to the 1999 Legislature would place offenders on "community custody," allowing the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to set and modify conditions of release - and to punish violations without returning violators to already overburdened courts.

"There are 14,000 convicted felons in Washington state prisons and another 1,700 in county jails," Locke said. "But the public is at greater risk from more than 50,000 felons who have completed their terms and live in our communities.''

Locke said statistics show that 97 percent of inmates are released eventually, and that nearly one-third return to prison for re-offending within five years after release.

The Legislature's decision in the early 1980s to abolish the parole system and replace it with tougher sentencing standards that judges must follow brought truth in sentencing, but weakened the state's authority to supervise offenders after release.

"We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars building new prisons and new jails to make sure punishment is certain for those who commit crimes," Locke said. "I'm proposing we spend $15 million to do what we can to stop prison gates from being revolving doors."

The Offender Accountability Act is a key element of community-protection initiatives the governor will recommend as part of his 1999-01 budget plan. The proposal calls for $7.4 million to:

* Reduce caseloads for community corrections officers supervising high-risk offenders.

* Re-deploy community corrections staff to neighborhoods where released offenders live and work.

* Provide administrative hearings for violations of release conditions.

* Pay for additional sanctions, such as jail time, work release, and electronic monitoring.

* Provide drug treatment and job placement for indigent offenders required to use those services.

The governor's proposal also calls for $7.5 million in new funding to improve the computer system used by DOC to maintain information about released felons under supervision. The upgrade, the first stage of a multi-year project, would allow community corrections personnel to spend less time at computer terminals and more time supervising offenders.

Under the Offender Accountability Act, the DOC would allocate its supervision resources on the basis of new, research-backed methods that assess each felon's risk to re-offend as the individual is released from prison or jail.

Following their release, felons subject to supervision would be sentenced to terms of "community custody" under conditions set by the DOC. The length of those terms would be set by the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission by Dec. 31, 1999, and would apply to offenders convicted of serious violent sex, drug, and other specified crimes committed on or after July 1, 2000.

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