TESTIMONY OF DANIEL N. CLARK
ON BEHALF OF FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON WASHINGTON PUBLIC POLICY
ON SB 5295 CREATING A CORRECTIONS OMBUDSMAN,
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES AND CORRECTIONS,
FEBRUARY 9, 2007

Senator Hargrove and Members of the Committee:

I am happy to appear on behalf of the Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy, who endorse this excellent legislation.  This bill has also been endorsed by the statewide Transition & Reentry Reform Coalition, and the newly organized Religious Coalition for the Common Good, which includes the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Associated Ministries of Tacoma & Pierce County, the Washington Association of Churches, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, the Lutheran Public Policy Office, and others.

I am also happy to see that you have been given a letter from former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and former Third Circuit Chief Judge John Gibbons, co-chairs of the national Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s prisons, letting you know that this bill fulfills a major recommendation of the national commission, that each state create an independent agency to monitor prisons and jails, as the commission has detailed in its recent report “Confronting Confinement” I believe you have each received.  In addition, you have received written testimony from Tom Ewell of our Committee who was a member of the Maine Board of Visitors, appointed by their governor to perform similar functions there.  Tom explains how that function benefited prison administrators, correctional officers, and inmates, and also legislators and the general public.

I am further pleased to present a letter to the committee from University of Texas law professor Michelle Dietch, the foremost expert in the country on independent monitoring of prisons and jails, in which she strongly endorses this bill. In her letter, Prof. Dietch writes, “Part of professionalism in any field involves seeking outside feedback on performance, even when you think things are going well, because there is always room for improvement.”  For that reason, at a recent international conference on effective oversight involving 20% of the nation’s corrections directors and a wide range of other stakeholders, there was notable consensus about the need for independent oversight to complement internal accountability measures employed by correctional agencies.

As Prof. Dietch points out, there are a number of states, including Washington, that do not have any significant form of independent prison oversight.  To assist your consideration of this, she lists several fundamental ingredients for successful oversight.  The first is that it must be independent of the correctional agency, and able to do its work without interference or pressure from the agency or any other body.  Second, it must have unfettered and confidential access to facilities, prisoners, staff, documents, and materials, and should have the ability to visit at any time of day without prior notice.  In addition, it must be adequately resourced, it must have the power and duty to report its findings and recommendations and to control the release of its reports, and it must have the ability to conduct routine reviews as preventative measures and not be limited to investigating problems after they have become critical.

As Prof. Dietch’s letter concludes, “the notion that every state or locality that operates correctional facilities should be subject to independent oversight is an idea whose time has come.”

This bill directs the oversight activities to health, safety, and welfare issues.  We have suggested that rehabilitation be added to this list, and Senator Kastama has told us that he agrees with this amendment.  We have provided committee staff with our proposed changes to accomplish this.

The bill, particularly with this amendment, will not only help assure the health, safety and welfare of all those who live and work in our correctional system, it will assist in assuring the effectiveness of programs aimed at the successful transition and reentry of offenders back into society, so that we can begin to reduce our recidivism rates, which have been growing, as well as victimization, and the need for future prison construction.   We thank Senator Kastama for presenting it, and strongly urge your passage of this bill.