Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

H-0630.1
                                 HOUSE BILL 1640
     State of Washington         68th Legislature      2023 Regular Session
     By Representatives Street, Santos, Mena, Doglio, Senn, Reed, Berry,
     Farivar, Simmons, Cortes, Ryu, Lekanoff, Ramel, Gregerson, Bateman,
     Pollet, Morgan, Macri, Fosse, and Kloba
     Read first time 01/27/23.   Referred to Committee on Community Safety,
     Justice, & Reentry.
     AN ACT Relating to the governor's authority to grant pardons and
 commutations; amending RCW 9.94A.565 and 10.01.120; and reenacting
 and amending RCW 9.94A.728.
 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
     Sec. 1. RCW 9.94A.728 and 2021 c 311 s 19 and 2021 c 266 s 2 are
 each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     (1) No person serving a sentence imposed pursuant to this chapter
 and committed to the custody of the department shall leave the
 confines of the correctional facility or be released prior to the
 expiration of the sentence except as follows:
     (a) An offender may earn early release time as authorized by RCW
 9.94A.729;
     (b) An offender may leave a correctional facility pursuant to an
 authorized furlough or leave of absence. In addition, offenders may
 leave a correctional facility when in the custody of a corrections
 officer or officers;
     (c)(i) The secretary may authorize an extraordinary medical
 placement for an offender when all of the following conditions exist:
     (A) The offender has a medical condition that is serious and is
 expected to require costly care or treatment;
                                       p. 1                         HB 1640
     (B) The offender poses a low risk to the community because ((he
 or she)) the offender is currently physically incapacitated due to
 age or the medical condition or is expected to be so at the time of
 release; and
     (C) It is expected that granting the extraordinary medical
 placement will result in a cost savings to the state.
     (ii) An offender sentenced to death or to life imprisonment
 without the possibility of release or parole is not eligible for an
 extraordinary medical placement.
     (iii) The secretary shall require electronic monitoring for all
 offenders in extraordinary medical placement unless the electronic
 monitoring equipment interferes with the function of the offender's
 medical equipment or results in the loss of funding for the
 offender's medical care, in which case, an alternative type of
 monitoring shall be utilized. The secretary shall specify who shall
 provide the monitoring services and the terms under which the
 monitoring shall be performed.
     (iv) The secretary may revoke an extraordinary medical placement
 under this subsection (1)(c) at any time.
     (v) Persistent offenders are not eligible for extraordinary
 medical placement;
     (d) The governor((, upon recommendation from the clemency and
 pardons board,)) may grant an extraordinary release for reasons of
 serious health problems, senility, advanced age, extraordinary
 meritorious acts, or other extraordinary circumstances;
     (e) No more than the final twelve months of the offender's term
 of confinement may be served in partial confinement for aiding the
 offender with: Finding work as part of the work release program under
 chapter 72.65 RCW; or reestablishing himself or herself in the
 community as part of the parenting program in RCW 9.94A.6551. This is
 in addition to that period of earned early release time that may be
 exchanged for partial confinement pursuant to RCW 9.94A.729(5)(d);
     (f)(i) No more than the final five months of the offender's term
 of confinement may be served in partial confinement as home detention
 as part of the graduated reentry program developed by the department
 under RCW 9.94A.733(1)(a);
     (ii) For eligible offenders under RCW 9.94A.733(1)(b), after
 serving at least four months in total confinement in a state
 correctional facility, an offender may serve no more than the final
 18 months of the offender's term of confinement in partial
                                     p. 2                          HB 1640
 confinement as home detention as part of the graduated reentry
 program developed by the department;
     (g) The governor may pardon any offender;
     (h) The department may release an offender from confinement any
 time within ten days before a release date calculated under this
 section;
     (i) An offender may leave a correctional facility prior to
 completion of ((his or her)) the offender's sentence if the sentence
 has been reduced as provided in RCW 9.94A.870;
     (j) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, an
 offender sentenced for a felony crime listed in RCW 9.94A.540 as
 subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of total confinement shall
 not be released from total confinement before the completion of the
 listed mandatory minimum sentence for that felony crime of conviction
 unless allowed under RCW 9.94A.540; and
     (k) Any person convicted of one or more crimes committed prior to
 the person's eighteenth birthday may be released from confinement
 pursuant to RCW 9.94A.730.
     (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, an
 offender entitled to vacation of a conviction or the recalculation of
 ((his or her)) the offender's offender score pursuant to State v.
 Blake, No. 96873-0 (Feb. 25, 2021), may be released from confinement
 pursuant to a court order if the offender has already served a period
 of confinement that exceeds ((his or her)) the offender's new
 standard range. This provision does not create an independent right
 to release from confinement prior to resentencing.
     (3) Offenders residing in a juvenile correctional facility
 placement pursuant to RCW 72.01.410(1)(a) are not subject to the
 limitations in this section.
     Sec. 2. RCW 9.94A.565 and 1994 c 1 s 5 are each amended to read
 as follows:
     (1) Nothing in chapter 1, Laws of 1994 shall ever be interpreted
 or construed as to reduce or eliminate the power of the governor to
 grant a pardon or clemency to any offender ((on an individual case-
 by-case basis)). However, the people recommend that any offender
 subject to total confinement for life without the possibility of
 parole not be considered for release until the offender has reached
 the age of at least sixty years old and has been judged to be no
 longer a threat to society. The people further recommend that sex
                                     p. 3                          HB 1640
 offenders be held to the utmost scrutiny under this subsection
 regardless of age.
     (2) Nothing in this section shall ever be interpreted or
 construed to grant any release for the purpose of reducing prison
 overcrowding. Furthermore, the governor shall provide twice yearly
 reports on the activities and progress of offenders subject to total
 confinement for life without the possibility of parole who are
 released through executive action during ((his or her)) the
 governor's tenure. These reports shall continue for not less than ten
 years after the release of the offender or upon the death of the
 released offender.
     Sec. 3.   RCW 10.01.120 and 2010 c 8 s 1003 are each amended to
 read as follows:
     Whenever a prisoner has been sentenced to death, the governor
 shall have power to commute such sentence to imprisonment for life at
 hard labor; and in all cases in which the governor is authorized to
 grant pardons or commute sentence of death, ((he or she)) the
 governor may, upon the petition of the person convicted, commute a
 sentence or grant a pardon, upon such conditions, and with such
 restrictions, and under such limitations as ((he or she)) the
 governor may think proper; and ((he or she)) the governor may issue
 ((his or her)) a warrant to all proper officers to carry into effect
 such pardon or commutation, which warrant shall be obeyed and
 executed, instead of the sentence, if any, which was originally
 given. The governor may also, on good cause shown, grant respites or
 reprieves from time to time as ((he or she)) the governor may think
 proper. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to limit the
 governor's authority to grant a pardon or commutation for a sentence,
 other than a sentence of death, regardless of whether the governor
 receives a petition from the person convicted.
                                  --- END ---
                                     p. 4                          HB 1640
Statutes affected: 
Original Bill: 9.94A.565, 10.01.120