OLYMPIA UPDATE

Times sure have changed in my nearly 30 years as a Washington state legislator.

When I was a freshman member of the House of Representatives in 1993, one of the top issues facing the Legislature was public safety. Crime, especially violent crime, had been rising both in Washington and nationally. Many citizens were demanding tougher punishment on criminals, including juvenile offenders. Although both chambers in the Legislature were controlled by the Democrats at that time, there was a consensus among both parties that the focus should be on ways to keep the public safe, not coddle criminals.

When I was a member of the House Corrections Committee in the mid-1990s, that panel reformed what was a sloppy state corrections system into a no-nonsense system.

And when the Legislature failed to act on a public safety issue, the voters did. During my first year in office, Initiative 593 was approved by nearly 76 percent of Washington voters. You may know it as the “Three Strikes, You’re Out” law,

Now fast forward to 2021. As in 1993, both the House and Senate are under Democratic control. But there is a different focus, one that worries me. There seems to be greater priority placed on perpetrators than the public. In just the first few weeks of this year’s session, a number of disturbing measures have been introduced – and if passed and signed into law, they likely will make our population less safe.

One example is Senate Bill 5121, which was recently passed by the Senate along party lines. I voted against this bill because it will release inmates back into society sooner.

When serial offenders are in jail, people on the outside are protected from them. For the inmates who would benefit from this bill, early release could allow for a quicker return to victimizing the public. One of my Senate colleagues aptly said this proposal would create a Running Start-style program for serial criminals at the public’s expense. We cannot afford to let that happen.

The “Three Strikes, You’re Out” law I mentioned earlier is also being targeted by Democrats. One proposal, SB 5036, would authorize inmates to petition to have their sentence commuted after serving 15, 20 or 25 years of total confinement depending on the inmate’s sentence. Another bill, SB 5164, would require the resentencing of offenders who had been sentenced to life without parole because their third “strike” was a conviction for second-degree robbery. Both SB 5036 and SB 5164 were passed by the Senate Law and Justice Committee and might be brought up for a full Senate vote soon.

The number of “soft-on-crime” bills before the Legislature this year follows last summer’s bizarre decisions by Seattle leaders to keep police from stopping criminal activity during the riots there following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Like many, I support the right of people to peaceably protest and demonstrate. But that right ends when it turns into looting, vandalism and other crimes. It definitely ends when bystanders are attacked, as was seen on TV news over and over.

Those shocking scenes, including the lawlessness in the “CHOP Zone” near downtown Seattle, were the result of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and other Seattle leaders turning their backs on law-abiding citizens and caving to chaos.

Our state’s leaders cannot follow that same path.