Gov. Bob Ferguson on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at improving Washington’s sexual civil commitment law, allowing “the attorney general and prosecutors to more thoroughly investigate these cases before filing them in court,” he said.
The attorney general’s office and prosecutors will have expanded power to obtain public records deemed necessary to build a case to commit someone to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.
House Bill 1133, crafted and requested by the attorney general’s office, was among several pieces of legislation introduced this session that sought to reform ongoing problems with the Special Commitment Center program, which is charged with rehabilitating people who have a history of sexual violence. The governor on Friday signed a bill targeted at strengthening GPS monitoring for civilly committed people granted supervised release from McNeil Island to live in the community.
“Rep. (Mari) Leavitt was a prime sponsor in this bill and did a fantastic work — worked in a bipartisan fashion to get this bill with all sorts of stakeholders and folks who care deeply about public safety,” Ferguson said.
Leavitt, D-University Place, who sponsored the bill, said in an interview that it “is about pulling all the information together to give a recommendation to the court and having the most information in their (the attorney general’s) predetermination so they are making a sound recommendation to the court with all the resources available.”
However, Leavitt noted the law is only a small piece of the larger reforms needed for the Special Commitment Center program.
“This bill is not going to solve all of (the issues) or (answer questions about) what is the treatment and is the treatment working,” she said. “That is an important and critical thing as well.”
An original version of the bill received significant criticism from both prosecutors and defense attorneys, in part because it would have granted the Department of Social and Health Services a significant expansion of power over where and how people conditionally released from the island live, and limited the ability of individuals or their defense attorneys to intervene.
A Seattle Times investigation this week revealed longstanding problems with the Special Commitment Center’s community program, which is operated with fragmented oversight and largely relies on unregulated housing providers. Residents housed in the community have been able to consistently violate court orders and are returned to the island nearly 50% of the time.
Following numerous closed-door meetings with stakeholders, all language expanding DSHS’ authority was stripped from the bill, which shrank from 34 to seven pages.
“The bill as introduced was overbroad and objectionable,” said Kelly Canary, managing attorney for forensic civil commitment with the Office of Public Defense. “The parties, including prosecutors, defense and Office of Public Defense, we all worked together to create a bill that was signed into law today.”
The original bill would essentially have given attorneys general subpoena power prior to a case being filed. But that was dropped in favor of expanding more ready access to public documents.
Washington Defenders Association and Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said at an early hearing for the bill that the legislation created unnecessary overreach, saying it would “give the state unfettered access to information, requiring residents to produce whatever the government wants without any judicial oversight or compensation,” according to a House bill report.
The final version walked back that language.
A case for commitment is opened when prosecutors file a petition to commit someone to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, which is operated by the Department of Social and Health Services. The person is detained on the island until a court or jury determines whether they may be 50% or more likely to sexually reoffend, based on criminal history and psychiatric disorders, if not held in a secure setting.
Once committed, a person will stay at the island facility until they are found to no longer meet commitment criteria and must then be released. A person can also be granted conditional release if it is found to be in their best interest to live under supervision in the community while still maintaining public safety.
Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said in an email, “As passed, it improves information-sharing and monitoring of sexually violent predators who may be released to less restrictive alternatives.
“We will continue to look for ways to make improvements in policy,” he wrote.
The attorney general’s office prosecutes sexual civil commitment cases for most Washington counties, with the exception of King County, which handles roughly a third of cases statewide.
The new law also prevents residents on conditional release from receiving supervision compliance credit. Most people are civilly committed to state custody after completing a criminal sentence and may have time left over under Department of Corrections community custody. Currently, the time they spend living in the community under supervised release can count toward their criminal supervision credits after incarceration.
Most people released from civil commitment rarely have time left under their criminal community supervision.
A Seattle Times investigation last year found that DSHS does not track or monitor residents after they are released from commitment, and 1 in 4 went on to commit new crimes, ranging from failing to register as a sex offender to rape.
During the legislative hearings, some attorneys objected to the stipulation to end community compliance credits, saying that the civil commitment law cannot be punitive and that preventing only residents from McNeil Island from receiving compliance credit may be a form of punishment and unconstitutional.
