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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comment Policy
We appreciate our readers and thank you for adding to the discussion. The following guidelines are established to ensure respectful tone in the comments of readers so we can all enjoy the site.
• Keep comments on topic - any comment that appears to be off-topic will be edited or deleted.
• Profanity - we’re PG13 here. Moderate language is allowed, but we reserve the right to edit out anything offensive.
• Personal attacks - personal attacks on the authors or other commentators will result in an immediate ban.
• Editor’s right - While we encourage comments that challenge or offer constructed criticism, we reserve the right to edit or remove any post, and to ban a user.*
• External linking - external links are ok, if they are relevant to the original post and your comment. Simply linking to your own site will be frowned upon.
Final Words
You, and only you, are responsible for your words. Once your comment is submitted, that’s it — you’re immortalized. Think before you submit.
*WFSE members are protected under the following Communications Ethics policy:
Under the provisions of the AFSCME “Bill of Rights for Union Members” regarding communications, “Members shall suffer no impairment of freedom of speech concerning the operations of this union. Active discussion of union affairs shall be encouraged and protected within this organization.”
If you believe your comments were removed unfairly, you may protest the removal of your post to the Communications Committee. Leave your protest at Contact Us on WFSE.org