New Report Says Release of WA Felons is ‘Intentional’ and Dangerous

A new report released by GOP Senate Republicans certainly makes the case that Democrats, Gov. Inslee, and his administration are purposefully releasing potentially dangerous criminals and making the streets less safe for citizens.

The extensive report, released by Sens. Padden, Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, and Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Wooley, tracks back the last five years, showing the epic failure of the state's correctional system. It begins following the 'accidental' release in 2016 of nearly 3,000 convicts prior to their release dates.

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The report tracks the dealings of the Correctional system since that incident, and has found:

 "Five years after that debacle, what Corrections did unintentionally is now a matter of official state policy. Last year the governor ordered a mass release of 1,000 prisoners at the peak of the COVID crisis, despite ample facilities to segregate stricken inmates, and the Legislature in 2018 launched a program designed to make early releases a matter of routine. This year majority lawmakers changed the rules to make an additional 3,000 inmates eligible for early release, while the Department of Corrections is readying a proposal for the Legislature to permanently reduce prison capacity by 3,300 beds."

At the same time, those dozen or so new crime laws that went into effect in July, pushed through by Democratic legislators, have severely handcuffed law enforcement. Since justifiable suspicion was replaced by probable cause, Officers now cannot do their jobs nearly as effectively as in the past.

The report also details this:

• "DOC and the executive branch are working to reduce prison capacity at a time when the crime rate is rising. All categories of violent crime have seen double-digit increases over the last five years.
• The state’s population is up but the inmate population is down, as a result of programs designed to empty prison cells. The state’s population increased by nearly 600,000 people over the last five years, a 7.5 percent increase. Yet prison populations have declined from about 18,000 to less than 14,000, a 22 percent reduction. Washington state already has a low rate of incarceration per capita, ranking 38^th nationally."

The Senators revealed this report during a press conference in Olympia on Wednesday, to see this video and get more information, click on the button below.