Lessons from Washington State
What our Neighbors to the North Learned about Earned Time
In 2003, Washington State was facing a very serious budget shortfall. They realized that they simply could not afford to continue to build so many prisons. As a result, the legislature passed a bill allowing the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) to increase earned time for eligible non-violent prisoners from a maximum of 33% of the total sentence to a maximum of 50%. The law applied to eligible individuals sentenced on or after July 1, 2003 and was also applied retroactively.
The Legislature also directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to evaluate whether the increase in earned time had any effect on recidivism rates. WSIPP is a state research institution. Their mission is to carry out practical, non-partisan research—at legislative direction—on issues of importance to Washington State. WSIPP released the study results in November 2008. They found that “…the law has no statistically significant effect on violent criminal recidivism” while there has been “a statistically significant decrease for nonviolent crimes.”
Substantial Cost Savings
Since the implementation of the changed law, WSIPP found that prisoners spent an average of 63 fewer days in prison, resulting in an average cost savings of $6,155 per person. Due to the estimated reduction in felony crime, WSIPP also calculated benefits of $4,588 per person for future crimes avoided and taxpayer costs saved – a total savings of $10,743 per “offender.”
(Note: PSJ prefers to put the humanity of individuals first and avoid labels; therefore, wherever “offender” is used we have put it in quotation marks.)
Benefits of Earned Time
Earned time can generally be attained by eligible prisoners if the DOC determines that the individual has exhibited good conduct and has participated in work, education, treatment, or other approved programs while in prison. Earned time thus provides prisoners with an important incentive to engage in rehabilitative work and obtain their liberty more quickly. One reason increased earned time may lead to lower recidivism rates is that people tend to lose more family and community ties the longer they are in prison. For many, those relationships are important in helping them avoid committing a new crime once they are released.
Earned time serves as a valuable tool for the DOC because it provides an incentive for prisoners to constructively use their time while incarcerated. When people do well in prison, it is indicative that they well do well in the community. Of course, earned time also significantly reduces the state’s incarceration costs.
How Oregon Can Learn from Washington’s Experience
According to a recent report by the Pew Center on the States, the average daily cost keeping someone in prison in Oregon is $84.43 compared to $12 for parole and $7.89 for probation. A 2005 fiscal analysis from Oregon estimated that increasing earned time from 20% to 33% would result in a savings of $6.6 million in the first biennium and $23 million in the second biennium.
Washington combined sound fiscal policy with safe and sensible sentencing reform. They saved a substantial amount of money while decreasing, or at the very least not increasing, recidivism. Oregon could learn a lot from our neighbors to the north.
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of Justice Matters.
