BILLS GIVING COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS OFFICERS MORE DISCRETION BOOSTED IN HOUSE HEARING

The Federation on Monday boosted a pair of bills increasing the discretion of Community Corrections officers to protect public safety.

HB 1839 authorizes the Department of Corrections (DOC) to require an offender sentenced to community custody to submit to searches without reasonable cause to believe that he or she has violated a condition or requirement of his or her sentence if the search is a condition of the offender's community custody.

It has other improvements to help CCOs do their job, such as:

• Requires a DOC hearing officer to give due consideration to the CCOs recommendation regarding the sanction for an offender who has violated a condition

• Requires the DOC to hire additional CCOs to the extent that funding is provided in the operating budget.

“We believe that it makes our job safer,” said Ton Johnson, a CCO in King County and member of Local 308. “It creates the ability for us to perform the tasks that we’re assigned in a safe manner.”

HB 1839 allows CCOs to exercise “our professional discretion and we ought to be able to utilize it,” Johnson said.

The other bill up before the House Human Services Committee was HB 1792, expanding the search and arrest authority of CCOs. That includes pat searches on DOC property and in its vehicles.

“One of the basic principles of corrections is that creating a safe environment for offenders to rehabilitate,” Johnson said.