By Erica C. Barnett
State Rep. Tarra Simmons (D-23, Bremerton) is trying, for the third year in a row, to give people serving prison time for all but the most serious felonies a chance to ask a judge for a shorter sentence. Her legislation, HB 1125, would allow incarcerated people to petition a judge for resentencing—starting with people who have terminal illnesses or were convicted as juveniles and eventually expanding to include adults who have served at least 10 years of their felony sentence.
Because Washington state lacks parole, there are only a couple of ways for prisoners to have their sentences reduced, regardless of rehabilitation, their age, or changes in public attitudes toward nonviolent felonies that once carried long sentences. People seeking early release can ask the governor for clemency, but that’s a long shot—Gov. Bob Ferguson, for instance, hasn’t granted a single clemency petition in his term.
There’s a second option: Under legislation, SB 6164, that passed in 2020, a county prosecutor can ask for a reduced sentence if they believe the original sentence “no longer advances the interest of justice. Since the bill passed, prosecutors have brought fewer than 200 cases before a judge for reconsideration statewide, Simmons said—a sign that the law is being underutilized.
Simmons’ bill would give attorneys for defendants the same right prosecutors have to ask a judge for resentencing, allowing prisoners (those who haven’t committed aggravated murder or multiple sex offenses) to make the case that they’re no longer a threat and deserve early release. “A lot people would be safe to now reenter the community, but we have no way out for these people,” Simmons said.
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Simmons, who was the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the legislature,, said she’s familiar with the argument from victims’ advocates that it isn’t fair to release someone who’s convicted a crime before they’ve done their time. “I empathize with that position. I was a survivor of crime long before I was incarcerated.”
But if a judge determines someone has been rehabilitated in prison and is no longer a threat to their community, “leaving them in prison for decades, maybe even life, for the purpose of pure punishment—it’s not giving people hope or an incentive to engage in rehabilitation,” Simmons said.
Washington has an aging prison population—nearly a quarter of people in state prisons are over 50—and the cost of keeping them in jail only increases as they get older. “It is extremely costly to house these seniors,” Simmons said. “We pay for their health care through the state budget, not Medicaid—and we get sued a lot for the lack of appropriate medical care at the Department of Corrections.”
A fiscal note for the final version of the bill last year estimated that it would cost about $1.3 million a year to implement, and save a real but “indeterminate” amount for the state. (The memo noted that there’s no way of knowing how many people will successfully petition for reduced sentences; new costs include additional victim advocacy staff and a flexible fund for victims.)
Simmons estimates that the state could probably save “in the hundreds of millions per year by looking at the people who have served a very long time.” Prisons, she said, “aren’t set up to be nursing homes.”