Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

H-3048.1
                           SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1800
     State of Washington         68th Legislature       2024 Regular Session
     By House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry (originally sponsored
     by Representatives Barkis, Donaghy, Eslick, Fey, Barnard, Robertson,
     Stokesbary, Chambers, Abbarno, Christian, and McClintock)
     READ FIRST TIME 01/31/24.
      AN ACT Relating to criminal penalties and restitution for
  graffiti; amending RCW 9A.20.030; reenacting and amending RCW
  9A.04.110; adding a new section to chapter 9A.48 RCW; creating a new
  section; and prescribing penalties.
 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
     NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that an increase in
 graffiti and defacement of public and private property damages and
 detracts from the general enjoyment of community spaces. This act
 provides the court with more options for offenders to rectify their
 mistakes. The intent of this act is to discourage graffiti and other
 malicious mischief crimes by including community service hours or
 actual damage cleanup as a court-issued punishment. Adults are paying
 the fines for some youth, so the offender is not experiencing
 consequences that would lead to better behavior. Prosecutors are
 unlikely to recommend actual jail time for minor crimes. Therefore,
 picking up trash in state parks, scrubbing off paint, or doing other
 forms of community restitution provides a reformative opportunity.
 This act is building on policies that currently exist in the justice
 system with the expectation of better outcomes for all involved.
                                       p. 1                         SHB 1800
      NEW SECTION.   Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 9A.48
  RCW to read as follows:
      For offenders convicted of malicious mischief in the third degree
  or criminal street gang tagging and graffiti, the court may order the
  offender to perform at least 24 hours of community restitution in
  addition to other penalties. The court may use any community
  restitution program available including, but not limited to, RCW
  72.09.260.
     Sec. 3. RCW 9A.04.110 and 2011 c 336 s 350 and 2011 c 166 s 2
 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     In this title unless a different meaning plainly is required:
     (1) "Acted" includes, where relevant, omitted to act;
     (2) "Actor" includes, where relevant, a person failing to act;
     (3) "Benefit" is any gain or advantage to the beneficiary,
 including any gain or advantage to a third person pursuant to the
 desire or consent of the beneficiary;
     (4)(a) "Bodily injury," "physical injury," or "bodily harm" means
 physical pain or injury, illness, or an impairment of physical
 condition;
     (b) "Substantial bodily harm" means bodily injury which involves
 a temporary but substantial disfigurement, or which causes a
 temporary but substantial loss or impairment of the function of any
 bodily part or organ, or which causes a fracture of any bodily part;
     (c) "Great bodily harm" means bodily injury which creates a
 probability of death, or which causes significant serious permanent
 disfigurement, or which causes a significant permanent loss or
 impairment of the function of any bodily part or organ;
     (5) "Building," in addition to its ordinary meaning, includes any
 dwelling, fenced area, vehicle, railway car, cargo container, or any
 other structure used for lodging of persons or for carrying on
 business therein, or for the use, sale, or deposit of goods; each
 unit of a building consisting of two or more units separately secured
 or occupied is a separate building;
     (6) "Deadly weapon" means any explosive or loaded or unloaded
 firearm, and shall include any other weapon, device, instrument,
 article, or substance, including a "vehicle" as defined in this
 section, which, under the circumstances in which it is used,
 attempted to be used, or threatened to be used, is readily capable of
 causing death or substantial bodily harm;
                                     p. 2                         SHB 1800
     (7) "Dwelling" means any building or structure, though movable or
 temporary, or a portion thereof, which is used or ordinarily used by
 a person for lodging;
     (8) "Government" includes any branch, subdivision, or agency of
 the government of this state and any county, city, district, or other
 local governmental unit;
     (9) "Governmental function" includes any activity which a public
 servant is legally authorized or permitted to undertake on behalf of
 a government;
     (10) "Graffiti" means defacing, damaging, or destroying public or
 private buildings, structures, facilities, natural features, or
 places by writing, painting, spraying, marking, or drawing with
 paint, ink, dye, or other substances;
     (11) "Indicted" and "indictment" include "informed against" and
 "information", and "informed against" and "information" include
 "indicted" and "indictment";
     (((11))) (12) "Judge" includes every judicial officer authorized
 alone or with others, to hold or preside over a court;
     (((12))) (13) "Malice" and "maliciously" shall import an evil
 intent, wish, or design to vex, annoy, or injure another person.
 Malice may be inferred from an act done in willful disregard of the
 rights of another, or an act wrongfully done without just cause or
 excuse, or an act or omission of duty betraying a willful disregard
 of social duty;
     (((13))) (14) "Officer" and "public officer" means a person
 holding office under a city, county, or state government, or the
 federal government who performs a public function and in so doing is
 vested with the exercise of some sovereign power of government, and
 includes all assistants, deputies, clerks, and employees of any
 public officer and all persons lawfully exercising or assuming to
 exercise any of the powers or functions of a public officer;
     (((14))) (15) "Omission" means a failure to act;
     (((15))) (16) "Peace officer" means a duly appointed city,
 county, or state law enforcement officer;
     (((16))) (17) "Pecuniary benefit" means any gain or advantage in
 the form of money, property, commercial interest, or anything else
 the primary significance of which is economic gain;
     (((17))) (18) "Person," "he or she," and "actor" include any
 natural person and, where relevant, a corporation, joint stock
 association, or an unincorporated association;
                                     p. 3                         SHB 1800
     (((18))) (19) "Place of work" includes but is not limited to all
 the lands and other real property of a farm or ranch in the case of
 an actor who owns, operates, or is employed to work on such a farm or
 ranch;
     (((19))) (20) "Prison" means any place designated by law for the
 keeping of persons held in custody under process of law, or under
 lawful arrest, including but not limited to any state correctional
 institution or any county or city jail;
     (((20))) (21) "Prisoner" includes any person held in custody
 under process of law, or under lawful arrest;
     (((21))) (22) "Projectile stun gun" means an electronic device
 that projects wired probes attached to the device that emit an
 electrical charge and that is designed and primarily employed to
 incapacitate a person or animal;
     (((22))) (23) "Property" means anything of value, whether
 tangible or intangible, real or personal;
     (((23))) (24) "Public servant" means any person other than a
 witness who presently occupies the position of or has been elected,
 appointed, or designated to become any officer or employee of
 government, including a legislator, judge, judicial officer, juror,
 and any person participating as an advisor, consultant, or otherwise
 in performing a governmental function;
     (((24))) (25) "Signature" includes any memorandum, mark, or sign
 made with intent to authenticate any instrument or writing, or the
 subscription of any person thereto;
     (((25))) (26) "Statute" means the Constitution or an act of the
 legislature or initiative or referendum of this state;
     (((26))) (27) "Strangulation" means to compress a person's neck,
 thereby obstructing the person's blood flow or ability to breathe, or
 doing so with the intent to obstruct the person's blood flow or
 ability to breathe;
     (((27))) (28) "Suffocation" means to block or impair a person's
 intake of air at the nose and mouth, whether by smothering or other
 means, with the intent to obstruct the person's ability to breathe;
     (((28))) (29) "Threat" means to communicate, directly or
 indirectly the intent:
     (a) To cause bodily injury in the future to the person threatened
 or to any other person; or
     (b) To cause physical damage to the property of a person other
 than the actor; or
                                     p. 4                         SHB 1800
     (c) To subject the person threatened or any other person to
 physical confinement or restraint; or
     (d) To accuse any person of a crime or cause criminal charges to
 be instituted against any person; or
     (e) To expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether
 true or false, tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or
 ridicule; or
     (f) To reveal any information sought to be concealed by the
 person threatened; or
     (g) To testify or provide information or withhold testimony or
 information with respect to another's legal claim or defense; or
     (h) To take wrongful action as an official against anyone or
 anything, or wrongfully withhold official action, or cause such
 action or withholding; or
     (i) To bring about or continue a strike, boycott, or other
 similar collective action to obtain property which is not demanded or
 received for the benefit of the group which the actor purports to
 represent; or
     (j) To do any other act which is intended to harm substantially
 the person threatened or another with respect to his or her health,
 safety, business, financial condition, or personal relationships;
     (((29))) )30) "Vehicle" means a "motor vehicle" as defined in the
 vehicle and traffic laws, any aircraft, or any vessel equipped for
 propulsion by mechanical means or by sail;
     (((30))) (31) Words in the present tense shall include the future
 tense; and in the masculine shall include the feminine and neuter
 genders; and in the singular shall include the plural; and in the
 plural shall include the singular.
     Sec. 4.   RCW 9A.20.030 and 1982 1st ex.s. c 47 s 12 are each
 amended to read as follows:
     (1) If a person has gained money or property or caused a victim
 to lose money or property through the commission of a crime, upon
 conviction thereof or when the offender pleads guilty to a lesser
 offense or fewer offenses and agrees with the prosecutor's
 recommendation that the offender be required to pay restitution to a
 victim of an offense or offenses which are not prosecuted pursuant to
 a plea agreement, the court, in lieu of imposing the fine authorized
 for the offense under RCW 9A.20.020, may order the defendant to pay
 an amount, fixed by the court, not to exceed double the amount of the
                                     p. 5                         SHB 1800
 defendant's gain or victim's loss from the commission of a crime.
 Such amount may be used to provide restitution to the victim at the
 order of the court. It shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney
 to investigate the alternative of restitution, and to recommend it to
 the court, when the prosecuting attorney believes that restitution is
 appropriate and feasible. If the court orders restitution, the court
 shall make a finding as to the amount of the defendant's gain or
 victim's loss from the crime, and if the record does not contain
 sufficient evidence to support such finding the court may conduct a
 hearing upon the issue. For purposes of this section, the terms
 "gain" or "loss" refer to the amount of money or the value of
 property or services gained or lost.
     (2) If a person commits malicious mischief in the third degree
 under RCW 9A.48.090 or criminal street gang tagging and graffiti
 under RCW 9A.48.105, in addition to the community restitution
 authorized in section 2 of this act, the court has discretion to
 order community or clean-up restitution, in lieu of part or all of
 the incarceration sentence.
     (a) The court may order the person to clean up the damage, with
 prior permission of the legal owner or, in the case of public
 property, of the agency managing the property.
     (b) When the court orders community restitution under section 2
 of this act, the payment shall be forwarded to the state treasurer
 who shall distribute it to the program for which the restitution is
 performed. The court may select either the litter cleanup programs
 created under RCW 72.09.260 or the waste reduction, recycling, and
 litter control account created under RCW 70A.200.140.
     (c) When the court does not order community restitution under
 section 2 of this act, the restitution payment shall be forwarded to
 the state treasurer who shall deposit it in the graffiti and tagging
 abatement grant program in RCW 36.28A.210, or a similar account, to
 be used solely for graffiti abatement and cleanup.
     (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this section also
 applies to any corporation or joint stock association found guilty of
 any crime.
     NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5.     If any provision of this act or its
 application to any person    or circumstance is held invalid, the
                                     p. 6                         SHB 1800
 remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other
 persons or circumstances is not affected.
                               --- END ---
                                  p. 7                       SHB 1800
Statutes affected: 
Original Bill: 9.94A.680, 9A.20.030
Substitute Bill: 9A.20.030