Marna Miller - February 2004

The Dependency and Termination Equal Justice Committee (DTEJC) was established by the Office of Public Defense, at legislative direction, to study several aspects of child dependency cases. To inform itself about service providers and practices of the courts and of DSHS, the DTEJC elected to survey five populations. This report focuses on the survey of social work supervisors.

For reports on related surveys click on the links below.

Chemical Dependency Treatment Provider Survey
Court Survey
Evaluator Survey
Service Provider Survey
Timing of Services to Parents

Marna Miller - February 2004

The Dependency and Termination Equal Justice Committee (DTEJC) was established by the Office of Public Defense, at legislative direction, to study several aspects of child dependency cases. To inform itself about service providers and practices of the courts and of DSHS, the DTEJC elected to survey five populations. This report draws information from the surveys for a visual display of times required to complete various services and mandated court timelines.

For reports on the individual surveys, click on the links below.

Chemical Dependency Treatment Provider Survey
Court Survey
Evaluator Survey
Service Provider Survey
Social Work Supervisor Survey

Robert Barnoski - January 2004

In 1997, the Washington State Legislature passed the Community Juvenile Accountability Act (CJAA) to reduce juvenile crime by establishing “research-based” programs in the state’s juvenile courts. The CJAA funded the nation’s first statewide experiment concerning research-based programs for juvenile justice. Because selected treatment programs had already been researched elsewhere in the United States, usually as small scale pilot projects, the question here was whether they work when applied statewide in a “real world” setting. This report indicates that the answer to this question is yes— when the programs are competently delivered.

Polly Phipps - January 2004

The 1998 Legislature significantly revised public safety and treatment policies regarding mentally ill offenders charged with misdemeanors by extending the criminal competency restoration process to misdemeanant defendants, broadening the involuntary civil commitment process for both misdemeanor and felony offenders, and strengthening information sharing provisions of the law. The Legislature directed the Institute to evaluate the outcomes of competency restoration and involuntary civil commitment treatment under the new law. This study addresses whether the legislation influenced the process of competency evaluation and whether the main legislative objectives have been met.

Steve Lerch - January 2004

As part of an overall economic development strategy, state and local governments have provided a variety of financial incentives to attract new businesses or encourage existing firms to remain or expand. Some cities and states have enacted accountability measures to better gauge whether job creation and other economic development goals are being met and to provide additional information on economic development spending. This report provides brief descriptions of three broad approaches to accountability provisions.

Steve Lerch - January 2004

Tax exemptions—tax preferences such as deductions, credits, or preferential rates—benefit specific groups of taxpayers. This report provides an overview of the tax exemption concept and a summary of research on tax exemption impacts, with an emphasis on exemptions in the economic development area.

Cheryl Milloy - December 2003

Washington was the first state to pass a civil commitment law for violent sex offenders; the law was part of the state's 1990 Community Protection Act. The Sexually Violent Predator statute permits the indefinite involuntary civil commitment of persons found in civil court to be sexually violent predators. This study examines the recidivism of 89 sex offenders released between July 1990 and July 1996 who were referred by the Department of Corrections as meeting the filing standards for civil commitment petitions, but for whom no petitions were filed. The study reveals that this group of individuals have a high pattern of recidivism.

Robert Barnoski - December 2003

The 2003 Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to determine if there are changes to Washington’s sentencing structure that could reduce costs without endangering public safety. This interim report describes the research plan, as well as the steps taken as of December 2003.

The final report is available in two parts:
Part I: Historical Trends
Part II: Recidivism Analyses

Robert Barnoski, Steve Aos - December 2003

In 1999, the Washington State Legislature passed the Offender Accountability Act (OAA). The OAA affects how the state provides community supervision to adults convicted of felony crimes. The Legislature directed the Institute to determine if the OAA achieves reduced re-offense rates (recidivism) and improvements in other outcomes. In this report, we examine how well the risk assessment instrument adopted by DOC—the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R)—predicts recidivism in a sample of 22,533 Washington offenders. We also explore possible improvements to the instrument and how a revised classification approach might work within the OAA.

Robert Barnoski, Steve Aos, Roxanne Lieb - December 2003

In 1997, the Washington State Legislature directed the Institute to evaluate research-based juvenile court programs. In 2002, the Institute's preliminary evaluation found that the programs cost-effectively reduced recidivism-but only when faithfully adhering to the original program design. Based on this finding, the 2003 Legislature directed the Institute to develop adherence and outcome standards to ensure quality implementation of juvenile justice research-based programs. In developing this report, the Institute worked with the juvenile courts, JRA, program developers, and the state's program experts.