Urge Senate to Give Corrections Ombudsman Bill (SB 5295) a Hearing

Please call or email Sen. Jim Hargrove, chair of the Senate Human Services & Corrections Committee, to urge him to give SB 5295, the Corrections Ombudsman bill, a hearing.  Sen. Hargrove’s district 24 covers Clallam, Grays Harbor, and Jefferson counties. Calls from people in those counties are particularly needed, but calls from throughout the state will also be helpful in moving this important bill forward.  Please advise others of this request as well.

The bill will implement one of the major recommendations of the national Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons’ recent “Confronting Confinement” report http://www.prisoncommission.org/pdfs/Confronting_Confinement.pdf , which called for every state to create an independent oversight body for its prisons and jails to assure health and safety, rehabilitation, and successful reentry for releasing offenders.

The bill is endorsed by the Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy,

the Lutheran Office on Public Policy, the Transition & Reentry Reform Coalition, the Social Action Commission of the First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church in Seattle, the public policy arm of the oldest African-American church in Washington State, and the newly formed Religious Coalition for the Common Good, bringing together faith-based organizations from around the state.

Thanks for your help in this important step in working for accountability and justice within prisons and well as more successful reentry programs for the excessive numbers of our citizens we incarcerate.

Best wishes,

Daniel N. Clark

Legislative Committee Chair

Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy

PO Box 1222, Walla Walla WA 99362

509-522-0399, fax 522-0415