Sex Offender Monitoring Policies Under Review

As discussed in the August Bulletin, the state is reviewing its policies regarding sex offenders in the wake of the murder of a young girl in July by a registered sex offender. The Governor appointed a workgroup to review the case, which released its preliminary report for the initial phase of its review on September 10.

The Senate Human Services & Corrections Committee will hold a work session on Friday, September 28 at 8 am to provide an overview of Washington sex offender and registration law and state and local notification processes, as well as an update regarding the case review workgroup.

The House Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Committee has also scheduled an update on the case review workgroup at a work session on Friday, September 28 at 10 am.

The Governor’s response to the workgroup’s initial report recommended the following steps:

We need to ensure that we have on file DNA of every sex offender.
Knowing where sex offenders live is absolutely necessary. We should consider adding Level I offenders to our sex offender registry website.
We must support local law enforcement in monitoring registered sex offenders.
We must consider increased electronic monitoring of sex offenders.

The initial report of the Governor’s case review workgroup and the Governor’s response is available at the following link: www.governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=642&newsType=1.

Update on Gangs

The Gang Task Force met in Spokane on September 10 and 11 to gather input from the public, hear presentations by the multi-jurisdictional Spokane Gang Unit on the presence of gangs in Spokane, and further their work to prepare legislative proposals for the 2008 session and beyond. As directed in the legislation, they continue to work on the following:

Creation of a statewide gang information database;
Possible reforms to the juvenile justice system for gang-related juvenile offenses;
Best practices for prevention and intervention of youth gang membership; and
Adoption of legislation authorizing a civil anti-gang injunction.

The task force has held meetings in several locations around the state, including Yakima, Bellingham and Spokane and plans further meetings this year in Vancouver on October 15 and 16, Tacoma on November 8 and 9, and SeaTac on December 10 and 11. At each location, the task force is taking public comments.

They have divided their work into the areas of prevention, intervention, and suppression.

The suppression committee is working on a legislative proposal to create a statewide database of gang members, so all jurisdictions may identify gang members. They are also considering strengthening nuisance laws and creating a civil injunction that may be imposed against gangs.

While these are longer-term strategies, the 2008 session may see introduction, at the request of the task force, of a proposal to require removal of graffiti within 24 hours of its appearance. Task force members acknowledge the need for state funding to achieve this goal.

More proposals are expected to emerge as the task force continues its work.

Update on Courts of Limited Jurisdiction Work Group

The Courts of Limited Jurisdiction Work Group met again on September 12. As reported in previous Bulletins, this was the second meeting and the work group will meet once more in preparation for the 2008 session.

The city "caucus" provided a list of items that we could consider for 2008, but recognized that we really do not "need" a bill on this subject at all. The items we agreed to work on include:

Looking at the districting committee membership;
Considering elimination of municipal departments (timed correctly to accommodate jurisdictions currently in the process of creating one); and
Reviewing commissioner duties.

There was interest in the group to limit what a commissioner might be able to do, such as not allowing them to hear jury trials, and reserving these duties to the judge. There was also concern expressed that some cities may be appointing a part-time judge but using full-time commissioners to avoid having to elect their judge. This practice would be contrary to the spirit of the law that requires cities to elect judges who serve 34 or more compensable hours in a week.

In addition to the issues noted above, the work group will likely also review raising the dollar amounts for civil cases that district courts may consider. One other issue that was discussed was adding a reference in the court statute to acknowledge cities’ authority to contract for court services using their authority under the interlocal agreement statute. This was the subject of a Supreme Court Decision earlier this year, and there is some interest (though not necessarily shared by the city interests) to put that decision into the state statute.

The next meeting is scheduled for November 28 from 1-4 pm. The topic will be regional jails, with some discussion expected related to drug sentencing policy.

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