Sen. Rebecca Saldaña (D–Seattle) pre-filed SB 5005 for this upcoming legislative session that addresses some recommendations recently proposed by a statewide legislative task force.
This bill proposes to establish an independent Jail Oversight Board to oversee city, county, and regional jails systems in Washington aimed at helping:
- Ensure transparency;
- Support safe and humane conditions for jail employees and incarcerated individuals;
- Promote reform towards a more rehabilitative and therapeutic jail system;
- Reduce jails' exposure to litigation; and
- Promote cost savings.
Among other things, the legislation directs the new oversight board to:
- Collect and report data on jail operations (such as population trends, health care, use of force, and deaths in custody);
- Monitor jails;
- Investigate systemic issues; and
- Provide recommendations to enhance safety, reduce litigation risks, and improve overall jail administration.
The bill also outlines the board's structure, duties, monitoring and reporting requirements, directs the board to establish a user-friendly public statewide jail reporting system, and mandates unexpected fatality reviews for all in-custody deaths.
Background information
The Legislature established the Washington state Joint Legislative Task Force on Jail Standards in 2021 to come up with a plan that would standardize rights and responsibilities of incarcerated individuals and increase oversight of jails around the state to promote safety and welfare of incarcerated persons and staff.
Last year, the task force voted to pass legislative recommendations and then finalized its work with a report in December 2023. The task force was made up of 18 multidisciplinary stakeholders and met over 13 meetings in 2022-23 to conduct this work.
For your convenience, we’ve boiled down the task force’s original recommendations to the bullets below. If you’d like to dive deeper into any of the recommendations, visit the end of the final report on pages 21-25 (and catch the corresponding pages in the numbered headlines below).
Task Force on Jail Standards: Seven recommendations at-a-glance
- Create an independent oversight agency (page 21)
- Agency creates mandatory standards and provides ongoing oversight of city, county, and regional jails
- Give oversight agency authority to create & enforce standards (page 21)
- Outline of agency authority, humane standards, & expert staff
- Timeline for mandatory minimum jail standards
- Agency enforcement & compliance powers with jails
- Jail closure & corrective procedures
- Establish oversight agency ongoing functions & features (page 22)
- Agency has strong jail monitoring authority
- Agency gets full access to jail facilities
- Agency focuses on systemic issues
- Agency gathers, updates, & analyzes good data
- Agency surveys incarcerated individuals & staff
- Agency outreaches with partners, stakeholders, & community
- Agency produces annual report for Legislature
- Agency provides technical assistance to jails
- Provide the oversight agency adequate & sustainable funding (page 23)
- Agency needs full & independent legislative funding to handle workload
- Create a board/commission to supervise the oversight agency (page 23)
- Establish a board to hire & supervise the agency director
- Agency board appointment, makeup, & public meeting process
- Coordinate statewide efforts on correctional conditions (page 24)
- Include agency member to review unexpected fatalities
- Establish statewide coordinating council on health services
- Create leadership training for jail executives
- Prevent in-custody deaths by reducing suicides
- Reduce pretrial incarceration to promote safer facilities
- Improve telecommunications & protect in-person visitation (page 25)
- Promote connectivity & regulate rates in telecommunications
- Expand ADA accessibility in jail telecommunications
- Ensure in-person visitation
The legislative session begins January 13, where we will track the movement of this bill. If you have anything you’d like to add or weigh in on before then, please reach out to Emma Shepard.