State Auditor Troy Kelley

State Auditor Troy Kelley is recommending the state improve its background check process by setting up automatic notifications every time someone like a school employee or foster parent commits a crime.

Twenty-nine other states have an automatic notification system in place, also known as a “rap back service.”

In Washington, people who apply for certain jobs must undergo a background check, with periodic follow-up background checks. Those jobs include child care workers, foster parents, teachers, home care aides, school employees and others working in what the report describes as “positions of trust.”

Between 2005 and 2012, the auditor’s office found that about 500 people faced new criminal charges after passing the initial background check. Most of those crimes went unnoticed for nearly two years, with the charges ranging from drugs to theft to child molestation.

The auditor’s report cites a high school janitor who passed an initial background check, then was arrested for a sex offense a year later. He continued to work in the school district for several years after his conviction because of gaps in the background check process.

It would cost about $300,000 to upgrade Washington’s criminal history system for automatic notifications. After that, it would cost about $350,000 a year to maintain, according to the report.

Read the full auditor’s report here.

Lawmakers spent Thursday morning discussing ways to crack down on driving under the influence around the state in the wake of two high-profile cases in the Seattle area that left three dead.

Attorneys, judges and law enforcement officials offered their views during a Senate Law and Justice Committee work session focused on preventing more tragedies like the ones making headlines in recent weeks. The chair of that committee, Sen. Mike Padden (R-Spokane Valley), is sponsoring a title-only piece of legislation called the Driving Under the Influence Act of 2013.

One idea gaining traction is changing the felony DUI scoring – making the offense a felony on the third or fourth conviction, instead of the current law of five within 10 years.

“Clearly if the law were narrower, we would see a dramatic increase in DUI felony crimes,” said King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim.

Changing the law would also result in higher costs for the courts and prison system. That presents a problem for lawmakers who are trying to close a $1.2 billion budget deficit and funnel more money into the state’s school system.

Other ideas considered by the committee included:

• Tightening regulations surrounding the use of interlock devices on cars for people charged with DUIs. Some say it should be mandatory and Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) said he would like to see them installed while the cars are impounded following a DUI arrest.
• Allowing law enforcement to use roadside sobriety checkpoints. A number of states around the country use checkpoints, but some questioned the constitutionality of the practice.
• The committee heard a presentation about South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program, which gives people convicted of alcohol-related crimes a chance to stay out of jail as long as they are monitored daily for alcohol use. It requires repeat DUI offenders to take twice-daily breath tests to prove their sobriety or to wear alcohol-monitoring bracelets or test through an interlock device on their car.

It’s unclear when a finished piece of legislation will be proposed, but Padden said more meetings will take place with stakeholders and a joint meeting with his committee and the House Public Safety Committee will likely take place next Thursday.

A bill that would make wrongly convicted inmates eligible to receive $50,000 for each year they served behind bars cleared another hurdle in the state Legislature on Tuesday.

House Bill 1341, sponsored by Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines), was unanimously approved by the Senate Ways and Means Committee and now moves on to the Senate Rules Committee and a possible floor vote. The measure was passed out of the House last month on a 95-2 vote.

Under the legislation, wrongly convicted death row inmates would receive an additional $50,000. It would also provide $25,000 per year spent on parole or as a registered sex offender. Federal law currently requires payments of $50,000 per year for those wrongfully detained in a federal prison.

If the measure is approved by the full Senate and signed by Gov. Jay Inlsee, Washington would join 27 other states with similar legislation.

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A bill that would limit where ex-inmates could live when using a state rental voucher program was approved by the state Senate on Thursday.

The bill would create an approved list of housing options for released inmates who qualify for rental assistance through the state Department of Corrections program.

Senate Bill 5105, sponsored by Sen. Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup), is intended to give communities more control over where offender housing can be located. It was prompted by residents in some cities that raised concern over the high density of offenders living in one area.

“This is a problem that exists in virtually all of our districts. It just makes a lot sense to move somebody out of the very expensive prison setting to a local setting and improve their transition ability,” said Sen. Jeannie Darneille (D-Tacoma). “It’s to all of our benefit that people do stabilize and don’t commit additional crimes and this provides a tool for us as we implement the housing voucher program that I think is very sound.”

Lawmakers approved the rental voucher program in 2009 in an effort to save money and reduce recidivism rates. It allows the state Department of Corrections to pay for three months of rent and applies to inmates who have earned early release through good behavior.

The bill was unanimously approved Thursday and now moves on to the House for consideration.

A House Committee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill that would abolish the death penalty in Washington state.

Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle), the prime sponsor of the House Bill 1504, asked members of the House Judiciary Committee to keep an open mind and encourage open dialogue around the controversial issue.

“There is something honorable and noble about putting this issue on the table in this Legislature for us as the state government to acknowledge that there is a national and international movement afoot that is real and evolving dramatically away from the death penalty,” Carlyle said.

Washington is one of 33 states that currently uses the death penalty. Seventeen states have overturned capital punishment. Opponents of the death penalty point to the high cost of court appeals and the emergence of DNA evidence in the exoneration of wrongly convicted inmates.

Twenty other lawmakers have signed on to this year’s effort, including Republican Rep. Maureen Walsh of Walla Walla.

“I certainly recognize that these are horrific crimes and in no way do I diminish the anguish that the victim’s family certainly must feel in this particular situation, but to me it’s just too easy to just kill them,” Walsh said. “I’d rather they sit in jail the rest of their lives to think about what they’ve done, to live in that hell the rest of their lives.”

The state has executed 78 men since 1904 and eight men are currently on death row.

No one testified against the bill during Wednesday’s hearing, but Rep. Jay Rodne (R-North Bend) suggested defense lawyers were driving up the cost of death penalty cases to make a political point.

“One of the things that I find very troubling in this whole debate is the conduct of the criminal defense bar that is engaged in a purposeful campaign to raise the cost of capital punishment beyond the level where most counties can afford. I think it’s inhumane to use those poor souls on death row as pawns in a larger political agenda, which is exactly what is going on throughout the nation,” he said.

Legislation that would abolish the death penalty has been introduced in previous legislative session with little success. The committee did not take action on the bill Wednesday.