Reps. Dan Griffey, Travis Couture score public safety victory as House passes bill to improve monitoring of sexually violent predators
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Reps. Dan Griffey, Travis Couture score public safety victory as House passes bill to improve monitoring of sexually violent predators
In their ongoing battle to reform Washington state’s civil commitment system for sexually violent predators, Reps. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, and Travis Couture, R-Allyn, delivered a public safety victory Monday, as the House passed their bill to better monitor SVPs.
House Bill 1457 requires all SVPs released into communities to wear technologically-advanced ankle monitors that are virtually tamper-proof and provide real-time GPS data to protect against escapes from less restrictive alternative group homes and other dangerous situations we have already seen.
“I want to thank my colleagues in the House for passing this important bill that greatly increases our ability to track SVPs in real time to ensure our families are safe,” said Griffey. “This adds a strong layer of protection to keep communities safer, but it is only one of the many steps we must take to fully reform this system and truly protect our most vulnerable Washingtonians. We will continue to work for a full overhaul of the SVP civil commitment system.”
“This new monitoring system will make communities safer and I am glad to see it pass,” said Couture. “But there are major gaps in the current SVP civil commitment system that range from the level of treatment sexually violent predators receive, how and where they are released, security and oversight, and community and law enforcement notification, among other issues. Dan and I have worked for years with stakeholders trying to reform this system. We will continue to fight to put the safety of Washingtonians where it should be – at the top of the priority list.”
Griffey and Couture also sponsored House Bill 1451, which would have required that all less restrictive alternatives, group homes, where SVPs are granted conditional release in communities across the state, be owned, operated, or contracted by the Department of Social and Health Services to ensure transparency and accountability.
The bill would have barred an SVP from proposing their own LRA placement before DSHS can identify and suggest one of its own, LRA housing from being placed within 500 feet of where children are known to congregate and required a 60-day notice to law enforcement in a county where DSHS is considering LRA housing, as well as other conditions before siting.
The chair of the Community Safety Committee refused to give the bill a hearing.
