The budget cuts proposed by the state Legislature are playing Russian roulette with public safety.
Some people say the state should save money by reducing offender sentences, and others say the state should reduce the level of supervision of released offenders. But I believe a larger point has been overlooked. The issue is not which of these many cuts to make, but instead whether the majority party should make any of them.
Included in the Senate operating budget proposal are a number of reductions that together would release enough felons to warrant closing the McNeil Island prison. First, the state would release or transfer the nearly 1,300 offenders. As part of this, the state would also allow 121 inmates serving life sentences under Washington’s three-strikes law, many for rape and murder convictions among other heinous crimes, to qualify for resentencing and possibly be set free.
The devil is in who gets let out early and who goes unsupervised. How will it affect the public, and will the people whom we represent be more or less safe as a result?
Other ideas include releasing inmates who have served less than half of their original sentence, deporting illegal aliens convicted of nonviolent crimes before they serve a single day of their prison sentences, home detention for released offenders who have contact with their victims, allowing thieves to steal greater amounts before it becomes a felony crime, and removing money to determine where Level II and III sex offenders are living.
When all of these suggestions are enacted, the long-term net effect will be an increase in recidivism and crime. The cost to Washington’s residents will far outweigh any savings made in the short-term.
Take, for example, the proposed cuts to the Becca Laws. Ending the funding for these laws would save the state $8 million to $10 million per biennium, but long term it will end up costing taxpayers somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million per biennium.
Since the Becca Laws were enacted, the state has closed more than half of its juvenile prisons. Many of those would be forced to reopen, as the juvenile offender population would surge. Like cuts to public safety, it may be penny-wise but very pound-foolish.
I continue to work with members of the majority party to find acceptable solutions to state budget problems. For example, my rental voucher bill will save taxpayers more than $13,000 per offender by providing released offenders with rental vouchers for no more than three months to give them time to find gainful employment. Currently, offenders who are ready to be released but can’t find stable housing are kept in prison, extending costs to the state.
As long as solutions can be found that don’t cause undue harm, they should be considered. However, if it is simply a cost-saving measure meant to balance the state budget for the next two years, we should look elsewhere.
The state operating budget proposals call for nearly $115 million in cuts to public safety through closure of the McNeil Island prison and other cuts to corrections. That money can easily be found in other areas of the budget, such as eliminating the life sciences discovery fund, scrapping health care for illegal immigrants or freezing wages for all employees, among others.
Public safety is a paramount issue in the state operating budget, and it should be the last place the Legislature looks to make cuts.
State Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, represents the 28th Legislative District.
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