FAMM is working in Washington state in 2023 to advance our Second Chances Agenda through meaningful Second Look Sentencing Reform as well as retroactive sentencing reform. Read more about the legislation we are supporting below.
Urge Washington lawmakers to support Second Chances
Washington’s 2023 legislative session will run from January 9, 2023 to April 24, 2023.
Questions? Contact Daniel Landsman, FAMM’s Deputy Director of Policy, at dlandsman@famm.org for more information.
2023 Legislative Priorities
HB 1324/SB 5475 would prohibit juvenile adjudications (felony convictions sustained through a juvenile justice court) from automatically increasing an individual’s sentencing range in the adult criminal justice system. In Washington, an individual’s sentence in adult courts is heavily influenced by an individual’s “offender score” which currently considers juvenile adjudications – a practice most states do not employ. This leads to adult sentences in Washington often being inflated by mistakes made by the individual when they were children. HB 1324/SB 5475 would eliminate this practice prospectively and provide people sentences prior to the enactment of this bill an opportunity for resentencing.
HB 1325/SB 5451 would greatly expand the Second Look Mechanism created by the legislature in 2014. Under that law, people given lengthy sentences for offenses committed before their 18th birthday can petition for review before the Indeterminate Review Board after serving 20 years for most offenses and 25 years for aggravated first degree murder. HB 1325/SB 5451 would expand this mechanism to include people given long sentences as emerging adults (after their 18th birthday but before their 25th birthday) and who have served at least 15 years for most offenses and 25 years for aggravated first degree murder.