UW Report Recommends Repealing 3-Strikes and Implementing PREP

Life Without Parole Sentences in Washington State

http://fix3strikes.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=06875299f1945d42ff4550f34&id=afcd6d0bdf&e=a814f7b0d0.

The authors of a May, 2015 report from the University of Washington's Law, Justice, and Societies Program find that a total of 3,364 lifers (1,383 people serving Life Without Parole [LWOP] and 1,981 serving life with parole) are currently in WA prisons. That represents more than 19% of the state's total prison population.

The report concludes that Washington State will spend nearly $2.5 billion in avoidable costs over the next 39 years because of our high use of LWOP.

These costs would be justified if the widespread imposition of LWOP significantly enhanced public safety. But any public safety gains associated with this trend, the authors find, are minimal.

Criminological experts overwhelmingly agree that age is the most consistent predictor of recidivism. A large body of evidence shows that individuals age out of crime. While prisoners under 25 have a re-offense rate of over 34%, those over age 50 have a re-offense rate of only 10% and those over 55 a re-offense rate of 2%. (Added note: WA Department of Corrections found in 2015 that 30.3% of all people released from state prisons in 2011 returned to prison for a new crime within 3 years. That rate dropped to 8.8% for those 55 and older.)

Authors also note that approximately 4% of the state population identifies as black, while 15% of felony cases involve black defendants and an even greater share, 28%, of people serving LWOPs in WA, are black.

Of the 731 official life without parole sentences, half are "three strikers".

Report recommendations include repealing the state's 3-Strikes law and the Hard Time for Armed Crime Act, making rehabilitation central to the state's criminal justice system, and creating a Possible Release Evaluation Process (PREP) that would encompass both pre- and post-release rehabilitative services and provide for evaluation of prisoners by a review board

Through PREP, Incarcerated people would be eligible for review after serving 13 years and 4 months (Washington's past definition of the minimum duration of confinement for a person serving a life sentence.)

The authors call for the creation and implementation of wraparound services for prisoner reentry that incorporate an array of programming opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society that adequately prepare prisoners for the challenges of life beyond prison walls.

The recommendation for sentence review after 13.3 years is similar to what Washington Coalition for Parole calls for - the opportunity for parole review for all persons after 15 years in prison.