County Parole Hit By State Cuts
The reality of a state budget process for the Washington legislature that faced a $9 billion shortfall, solved in part with deep cuts to the prison system last July, have become reality this fall in Clark County. Reported by KGW News.
Five hundred fewer former inmates will get parole supervision, Washington Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said Thursday. Clark County judges will be told these people are no longer under the jurisdiction of the corrrections department. Statewide, the figure is about 8,500 former inmates, and that number could rise to as high 9,400, he said. There were about 27,000 parolees under supervision when the cuts began. The tradeoff, he said, is that those former inmates are considered the least dangerous of the state’s parolees. Those with sex offenses and a history of violence or mental illness will continue to receive supervision, he said. This includes a decision to halt all post-release supervision of sex offenders at 36 months after they leave prison. Some of them had been supervised for 48 months, depending on the circumstances, he said.
The layoffs of community corrections officers started last week. On it’s website this week, the Washington Federation of State Workers had words of caution for the public. “These cuts impact not only jobs but they compromise public safety. Our community orrections members said throughout the (legislative) session and continue to say this. We only hope we don’t have a tragedy that proves the error of this path the Legislature and administration has taken.
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