COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS MAKE AN IMPACT ON THEIR LOBBY DAY AS BAD SUPERVISION BILL UNEXPECTEDLY STALLS

PHOTO: Local 970 Community Corrections member Linda Tolliver discusses her concerns about ESSB 5288 with Rep. Dean Takko during WFSE/AFSCME's Corrections Lobby Day Tuesday in Olympia.


Tuesday was the day that the House Ways and Means Committee was supposed to vote out the bill lowering Community Corrections supervision of offenders.

But ESSB 5288 unexpectedly stalled and did not come up for a vote.

It came the day that a corps of Federation Community Corrections members swarmed the Capitol with their message: Don’t balance the budget on the backs of public safety.

One Federation Community Corrections member who spent the day was Linda Tolliver, a Community Corrections officer in South Bend. She knows first-hand the potential harm of ESSB 5288—her nephew’s murderer is about to be released from prison. It’s possible the man, John Bussanich, could be classified as low risk and escape post-release supervision if ESSB 5288 becomes law.

According to a Sept. 27, 1999 Seattle Times article, Bussanich was convicted of second-degree murder for the 1995 murder of Tolliver’s nephew, Tyrone Tieden. For year’s, the family suffered not knowing what had happened to the missing 20-year-old.

“Before being sentenced, Bussanich apologized for giving Tieden’s relatives ‘false hope’ by telling them he was missing, rather than dead,” the Times reported.

Now, Bussanich is set for release later this month. Linda Tolliver, a member of Local 970, met with her legislators – and even buttonholed the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Jim Hargrove, who invited her into the Senate wings to discuss her concerns with the bill.

With Tuesday’s momentum by Federation Community Corrections members, it’s time to keep the pressure on.

Call 1-800-562-6000 and tell your legislators to either stop ESSB 5288 or support amendments that: add the requirement of reassessment of all offenders prior to cutting them from supervision to better limit public risk; include behavior factors in reassessment, not just static factors; and include a “sunset clause” so if passed ESSB 5288 expires.