Case Explained: Washington can’t afford to keep wasting money on extreme sentences • Washington State Standard – Legal Perspective

True public safety in our state can only be accomplished if everyone has access to affordable housing, food, health care, meaningful community connections, and the opportunity for a future with dignity and self-determination. 

This requires a healthy state budget with adequate revenue, and for state lawmakers to disinvest in programs that cause harm. 

Yet, for decades, Washington has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing a sentencing system that prioritizes length over common sense. House Bill 1125, a bill that lawmakers will consider this legislative session, would establish a responsible, merit-based process for courts to evaluate whether continued incarceration still serves the public, especially when a person has demonstrated substantial rehabilitation and presents a low risk of reoffense.

This proposed legislation addresses a costly human reality: people — many of them older, medically vulnerable, or long rehabilitated — remain incarcerated for decades under punitive policies that no longer reflect Washington’s laws, sentencing standards, and public-safety evidence. Many are serving terms determined by sentence enhancements that lawmakers have since reformed or repealed, or plan to. At a time when we’re facing state- and federal-level budget crises, putting money toward this kind of long-term incarceration is not just inhumane, it’s fiscally reckless. 

Decades of criminal legal policies that favor white people with wealth and power have disproportionately driven incarceration rates up for people of color, people with disabilities, and people living in poverty — concentrating harm in communities already facing systemic barriers.

In 2024, Washington spent an average of $75,576 per year to incarcerate a single person — an 84% increase since 2019. Costs are even higher in older or higher-security facilities, where annual expenses can exceed $115,000. For people who are seniors or are living with serious medical conditions, the cost of incarceration can be at least three times higher per person due to the rising price of medical care and specialized housing. Altogether, Washington now spends close to $1 billion annually to incarcerate about 13,000 people in state corrections, many of whom have already served decades for convictions that would receive far shorter sentences today.

As corrections spending grows, lawmakers are forced to make cuts elsewhere — often to higher education, housing assistance, behavioral health care, and youth programs that directly support long-term public safety and economic stability.

Recent higher education cuts show the impacts of these tradeoffs. For this biennial budget, lawmakers eliminated $89 million from the Washington Student Loan Program, making college less affordable for Washington families. Dollars funding incarceration cannot be used to reduce tuition, expand financial aid, or stabilize public universities, all of which should be public priorities to educate the next generation under a finite budget.

Despite these rising costs, outcomes do not improve. Research consistently shows that excessively long sentences do not deter crime. People tend to age out of the years when interpersonal criminal offenses are most likely to occur. Studies of individuals released after decades of incarceration — particularly those sentenced as youth — show exceptionally low rates of reoffense.

HB 1125 allows courts to evaluate certain cases after a person has served at least 10 years, based on extensive evidence of rehabilitation and merit. Eligibility is not automatic; it must be earned, and petitions are assessed individually. Some of the more extreme categories of offenses — including aggravated murder and persistent offender sentences — are excluded from eligibility. 

The bill prioritizes individuals whose circumstances make continued incarceration both least necessary and most costly: older people, those with serious or terminal medical conditions, and people sentenced as children or young adults to extraordinarily long terms. Anyone whose term is modified must complete a minimum of five years of community custody, ensuring accountability, supervision, and structured reentry support.

HB 1125 will expand survivor support, recognizing that sustainable public safety requires both accountability and healing—and neither is served when prison budgets grow unchecked while survivor services are cut. Federal support for victim services has been slashed by more than 50% since 2018, forcing many programs to reduce services or close altogether. HB 1125 would allow Washington to redirect resources toward prevention, stability, and healing, while ensuring that individuals earn the opportunity to be evaluated based on rehabilitation and accountability. 

Washington’s budget crisis gives us a clear choice: continue funneling money into extreme sentences with little public benefit, or adopt an approach that strengthens communities and stops using taxpayer dollars to punish an aging and sick population. HB 1125 is an obvious and necessary path forward.