Restoration of Voting Rights: Legislative progress on criminal justice often requires persistence and patience. Full restoration of voting rights upon release from prison was finally approved in 2021, ten years after partial rights were restored. Finally, a clearly stated act HB 1078 will restore this most sacred citizen right of…
Two bills we supported this year are becoming law: (1) A bill to prohibit contracts by the WA Dept. of Corrections for privately-operated prisons (2) A “bail-jumping” bill, that will reduce penalties for not appearing in court, which tend to affect low-income people most. We are greatly pleased with the…
The bill to Abolish the Death Penalty (SB 5339) and the bill to prohibit contracts with privately-operated prisons (SB 6442) have both passed the Senate and must receive votes in the House by Friday, March 6, 2020. Unfortunately, the following efforts did not succeed this session: Restoration of voting rights…