Washington state Senate and House 2023-2025 operating budget proposals outline important changes to the state criminal legal system over the next biennium. They have both proposed funding that would go toward reforming harmful legal financial obligations (LFOs), responding to the State v. Blake decision (the 2021 state Supreme Court decision that ruled the felony drug possession law was unconstitutional), and making other necessary funding adjustments to the criminal legal system.
True public safety comes from robustly funding public services, authentic community-building, and access to necessities like housing and cash. Some of the funding in the House and Senate budget proposals get us closer to this kind of public safety by boosting community well-being for people involved in the legal system and their families.
While neither of the budget proposals go far enough, the proposed House budget is slightly more comprehensive in ensuring greater economic and legal justice for Washingtonians. Share on XWhile neither of the budget proposals go far enough, the proposed House budget is slightly more comprehensive in ensuring greater economic and legal justice for Washingtonians. As such, we urge lawmakers to maintain the House’s proposed funding for these important policies as they go through final budget negotiations.
What’s in the proposed budgets
The Senate proposes over $200 million and the House about $190 million to support the impacts of the criminal legal system. The House budget includes critical funding for:
- court services to end reliance on LFO debts from youth and adults who can’t afford to pay;
- increased wages for people who are incarcerated;
- and necessary state-led studies on LFOs, juvenile justice, and the conditions of people who are incarcerated, amongst other system-related funding.
The specific policy changes that are proposed in the budgets include the following:
State v. Blake impact funding
The Washington State Supreme Court State v. Blake decision, where the Court found that the statute that criminalized possession of a controlled substance was unconstitutional, was crucial in addressing the combined impacts experienced by people ensnared in the racist War on Drugs in Washington. This decision meant that more than 100,000 people with this conviction could get the offense removed from their record, receive sentence adjustments, and be eligible for a refund of any LFOs paid.
The Senate proposed budget includes more comprehensive funding on State v. Blake related needs with about $190 million allocated, while the House includes around $155 million. These include moneys to the Office of Public Defense, the Office of Civil Legal Aid, and counties and local jurisdictions to process LFO refunds and ensure people are represented for certain record vacations. And money is spread across multiple state agencies and jurisdictions to support substance use disorder treatment. This funding gives impacted people quicker and more efficient ways of receiving refunds and vacating their records – as well as providing meaningful resources and alternatives to criminalization of people in the future.
Re-entry money
Both proposals also include re-entry grants of $5 million that go to community organizations to provide services and support to people returning home from prison. However, the Senate proposal includes $6 million for re-entry services and gate money. This increases the amount of money a person receives at the gate when leaving prison from $40 to $300. Increasing this amount for the first time since the 1970s is long overdue because costs for basic needs have increased and this gives people a chance to buy some necessary items upon leaving.
Legal Financial Obligations
The House budget includes more than adequate funding of $10 million for House Bill (HB) 1169, which focuses on legal financial obligations, while the Senate budget includes no funding for this important bill. HB 1169 eliminates the final two mandatory LFOs that courts are required to impose on people, regardless of whether they can pay. This bill creates a crime victim and witness fund to partially replace the Victim Penalty Assessment (VPA) and creates a DNA database account fund with the state. HB 1169 rightfully eliminates the rest of the youth discretionary LFOs that are on the books, as these fines and fees rarely get imposed on youth. Advocates have provided the legislature with research and testimony that identifies the need for around $3.5 million to $5 million per biennium to backfill funding for court services that will result from the passage of HB 1169.1 Therefore, the proposed $10 million is more than enough.
Increased wages for people who are incarcerated
HB 1024, which didn’t pass, was an attempt to address the “slavery loophole” clause of the 13th amendment, that exempts slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment upon conviction of a crime – where people that are incarcerated in Washington produce goods and services that generated $68 million in revenue in 2022 with their labor but were only paid at maximum $2.70 an hour.2 Instead of passing HB 1024, the House made an appropriation of $7 million for increased wages for people incarcerated – ensuring that people participating in Correctional Industries Class III work programs earn no less than $1 an hour.3 This is an increase in wages for certain workers who are incarcerated.
Although this is significantly less than the state minimum wages sought after in the bill by advocates this session, this money helps people afford basic needs, such as hygiene products, communication with family, and potential increases in contributions toward LFO debts. Increased wages for incarcerated workers not only more accurately compensates them for their labor, but it also gives people a better chance for more successful re-entry in being able to afford housing, basic needs, and family needs. If the state is going to incarcerate people as a punishment and profit off their labor, people should at least be rightly paid for their work.
Funding to study the criminal legal system
We know that our racist criminal legal and prison system particularly harms Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Research shows that in Washington, there is increased likelihood of arrest and longer prison sentences against Black and Indigenous people.4 Black and Indigenous people are arrested at rates of around three and two times, respectively, more than their relative population sizes and in comparison to white people.5 Black and Indigenous people are also disproportionately sentenced for felonies in Washington and are more likely to receive longer and harsher sentences.6
The proposed House budget additionally funds the Office of the Governor, the Department of Corrections, the Partnership Council for Juvenile Justice, and the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to conduct studies on the legal and prison systems, including juvenile LFOs, solitary confinement, and prison costs and conditions. These studies will provide transparency into the conditions of these systems and inform future legislation on criminal legal system reforms to help address these harms.
Police accountability
Recent research also demonstrates that in larger cities across Washington, Black people and Indigenous people are five and three times, respectively, more likely than white people to be stopped by the police.7 These encounters are also more likely to result in excessive and deadly force. There is a House budget appropriation of more than $5 million to support HB 1579 which establishes an office of independent investigations in the Office of the Attorney General to review investigations of police use of deadly force. These policies are also crucial to reducing the harms of policing.
Lawmakers should prioritize important criminal legal reforms in budget negotiations
In their final budget, legislators must include all the criminal legal system-related funding from the House proposal and maintain the Senate proposal’s State v. Blake funding commitments. Legislators should pass a budget that appropriates state funds for the crime victim and witness account and DNA database account, increased wages of incarcerated people, and state-led studies on our criminal legal and prison system.
Funding these policies reduces the harm of our unjust system of fines and fees, brings greater transparency to our criminal legal system, and reduces barriers to people successfully returning home after incarceration. That said, of the $70 billion in the state budget, less than 0.003% of total state funds go toward these criminal legal system impacts. This is not enough and legislators must invest more in the future to support true public and community safety in which everyone can more safely live.
It’s important to note that we continue to support other criminal legal system and policing funding adjustments and policies that impacted people and community/legal advocates demand. To learn more about some of those important efforts, visit the websites of Civil Survival Project, Columbia Legal Services, ACLU of Washington, and Living with Conviction.
