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| State cuts leave 1,000s of criminals unwatched |
| By seattlepi.com - CASEY MCNERTHNEY |
| Published: 06/18/2012 |
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Seattle, WA -- Monday morning, as U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan told how federal prosecutors would go after Seattle criminals illegally using guns, she said there are repeat offenders and people released from prison are most likely to commit other crimes. "We need strong supervision," she said. "Unfortunately, one of the things that has been cut at the local level has been supervision." The Department of Corrections supervision caseload is the lowest it's been in decades and last fall, for the first time in years, the state's prison population was roughly the same as the number of offenders being supervised in the community. Senate bills passed to reduce costs and constraints caused by the state deficit are the cause. "The Department of Corrections has been just a tremendous partner of state and local law enforcement and they have helped us in all of our efforts on gun crime," Durkan said. "But as their dollars dwindle, supervision is one of the keys we have to make sure that people who commit violent crimes once released don't commit other crimes." Corrections officers are now focused on high-risk offenders, agency spokesman Chad Lewis said Monday. He noted that community corrections officers can have more personal interactions with the 35 to 40 violent offenders they supervise, where in previous years those officers might have supervised 300 or more offenders, including those convicted of non-violent crimes, making individual follow-up more difficult. In 2002, the Department of Corrections supervised about 65,000 offenders statewide. But Senate Bill 5990, which was enacted in 2003, reduced that number to 28,000. After two other legislative acts – Senate Bill 5288 passed in 2009 and 5891 passed last year – DOC now supervises about 17,000 offenders in the community. Read More. |
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