Alternatives to Incarceration Task Force sweats possible funding loss if I-2117 passes

(The Center Square) – The Board for Judicial Administration’s Alternatives to Incarceration Task Force met this week to discuss upcoming budget requests to the Washington State Legislature regarding funding to achieve the organization’s goals.

The task force, formed in fall 2022 is crafting ideas for pretrial and post-conviction incarceration alternatives to be available to courts throughout the state regardless of the person’s ability to pay or the jurisdiction’s resources.

Other factors considered by the group as it weighs alternatives to incarceration include race, gender, equity, access to justice, technology, and funding advocacy needs.

Board members include judges, staff members from the Administrative Office of the Courts, diversion officers and others.

Judge Mary Logan opened Tuesday’s meeting with comments about potential funding for the organization’s goals being impacted by initiatives on the Nov. 5 ballot.

“We know that some of our budget is very much pending on what happens with a couple of initiatives,” she said. “Whether or not the clean air act is going to be repealed, and if that happens it actually has an enormous consequence to the budget and it may change some of the funding that could be made available to the courts.”

Logan was referencing Initiative 2117 that would repeal the 2021 Climate Commitment Act, which established the state’s cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I-2117 would also bar state agencies from imposing any type of carbon tax credit trading.

It’s unclear exactly what CCA profits are funding with regard to the task force, but language from the CCA states: “The CCA also puts environmental justice and equity at the center of climate policy, making sure communities that bear the greatest burdens from air pollution today see cleaner, healthier air as the state cuts greenhouse gases.”

The Center Square reached out to Washington Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, who helped write three of the four initiatives on next month’s ballot.

“It’s nonsense, just listen to who is saying this gunk,” said Walsh, who also serves in the state House of Representatives. “It’s entrenched bureaucrats who are taking grant money to write proposals for more grant money.”

Walsh said the task force is a waste of taxpayer money.

“That taskforce is completely a bureaucratic exercise of negligible worth to any citizen or taxpayer in Washington state,” he said.

Board member Andrew Cozzolino is a diversion officer in Thurston County. He sees value in the mission of the task force.

He advocated for the task force to adopt plans to put resource hubs near courts all across the state to offer pretrial and post-conviction resources.

Thurston County currently has a model for such services.

“It would be a place where people involved with the criminal justice system or people in the community at large could come in and get services from a variety of resources,” Cozzolino said. “We know this is a lot more valuable than handing someone a form and saying here’s a list of people and go call who you think you need to call.”

Who would supervise the resource centers and who they would be reporting to are still being worked on, he said, adding it’s still unclear what state agency would make the funding request or how much it could cost.

Washington has increasingly sought alternatives to incarceration in the form of diversion programs, community service, electronic home monitoring, and drug offender sentencing alternatives, among others.

According to the Washington State Department of Corrections older institutions have the highest per-inmate costs. For example, in fiscal year 2022, per-inmate annual costs at Clallam Bay Correctional Center exceeded $108,000.

DOC’s data shows it spent almost $800 million on its prisons in fiscal year 2022.

While supporters of alternatives to incarceration argue investments are needed to divert individuals from the criminal justice system, many others argue that movement has worsened the crime epidemic.

The 2023 crime report compiled by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs showed 376 murders in 2023, an increase of 87% from 2019.

The report also found Washington has seen an increase of vehicle thefts of 112% since 2019, and far more juveniles are now involved in criminal activity.

The Alternatives to Incarceration Task Force is scheduled to sunset in June 2025.