(The Center Square) – The Washington state House passed a bill that would end the Community Protection Program amid protests from Republican lawmakers who criticized both the bill’s proposal to end a program overseeing certain convicted sex offenders and the lack of a public hearing this session.
“We should refer to committee – we should kill it at this point,” Rep. Joshua Penner, R-Orting, told colleagues on Feb. 12 on the House floor prior to the passage of House Bill 1390, sponsored by House Community Safety Committee Chair Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland.
HB 1390 was introduced last session and cleared the House, but was ultimately referred back to that chamber by the Senate. The bill was reintroduced this session and advance through the Rules Committee to the House floor without a public hearing.
“Bill requires more, more engagement with the legislative process,” Orting also said. “Pulling this for this year is the wrong way to do this.”
HB 1390 would abolish the CPP, which provides services to Department of Social and Health Services Developmental Disabilities Administration clients 18 and older who are considered a risk to others or been charged and convicted of a sexual crime. Additionally, the CPA applies to DDA clients who has “a history of violent, stalking, sexually violent, predatory or opportunistic behavior which a qualified professional has determined demonstrates a likelihood to commit a violent, sexually violent, or predatory act.”
The CPA imposes numerous restrictions on individuals enrolled in the program, including the following:
Required alarms on doors and windows24-hour supervisionparticipation in a therapy programunauthorized consumption of television, magazines, telephone, computer, etc.)no drug or alcohol useroom searches based upon recommendations of therapisthousing location restriction and restricted access to victim populations
Speaking on the House floor, Goodman said the bill was at the request of DSHS and cited numerous issues he sees with the program.
“The program for the first 10 years did not go very well,” he said, noting “the lack of individualized treatment” and the difficulty for individuals to leave the program without losing DDA services.
Also speaking in favor of HB 1390 was Rep. Darya Farivar, D-Seattle, who said “I believe in justice. Parts of our status quo stand in the way of that goal. Sometimes they don’t further the stated purpose, and they do not further cause of justice.”
Under 1390, individuals enrolled in the CPA would then be transferred to other DDA service programs starting in 2026, a move that Republican lawmakers argued puts innocent DDA clients at risk.
“We aren’t ready to move these people,” Rep. Carolyn Eslick, R-Sultan, told House colleagues on Feb. 12. “I don’t think that this message has been clear enough for us to make sure that we’re going to be safe by dissolving this program.”
Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn called it a “very terrible anti-public safety bill.”
“We cannot being releasing with no monitoring, no supervision people who have committed a long list of crimes or have been deemed by a professional that they will reoffend given the chance,” he said. “This Community Protection Program exists for a reason.”
Orting noted that had there been a public hearing “we might have heard from the union representatives, whose job it is to take care of are developmentally disabled, who are not equipped to manage the very same people that we’re talking about here that would probably belong in McNeil Island.”
