A cost-saving measure that shortens some prison inmates’ sentences could be a heavy burden to bear for local law enforcement.
“I think it’s going to create problems for us,” Clallam County Undersheriff Joe Martin said Wednesday.
“There’s going to be some recidivism here. It’s bound to happen.”
The new law, Senate Bill 5990, took effect July 1 and is expected to save the state about $40 million in the next two years by giving some nonviolent offenders more time off for good behavior.
About 280 convicts, including eight at Clallam Bay Corrections Center, were released last week under the new measure.
Senate Bill 5990 also toughens some penalties for the most violent criminals, said one of the bill’s principal sponsors, North Olympic Peninsula state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Brasfield said it’s too soon to tell what financial impact the law could have on Jefferson County.
———
The rest of the story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News.
