Substitute House Bill 1180 (69th Legislature, 2025) makes multiple changes to Washington criminal and corrections law to implement recommendations from the sex offender policy board. It amends the crime of failure to register (RCW 9A.44.132) to specify criminal classifications: failure to register for a felony sex offense or for a felony kidnapping duty is classified as a class C felony, while failures tied to duties under other registration categories or nonfelony duties are gross misdemeanors. The bill also provides that a violation of the failure-to-register statute is an ongoing offense for statute-of-limitations purposes unless relieved under existing relief provisions (RCW 9A.44.141 and 9A.44.142). The bill revises many definitions and sentencing-related provisions in chapter 9.94A RCW (including RCW 9.94A.030 and the reenacted RCW 9.94A.515 Table 2), expands or clarifies terms such as electronic monitoring (including permitted victim-notification technology), persistent offender, pattern of criminal street gang activity, most serious offense, partial confinement, and related sentencing concepts. It amends mandatory community custody terms (RCW 9.94A.701 and 9.94A.702) so that courts must add specified lengths of community custody to custody sentences for categories of crimes (for example, three years for certain sex offenses or serious violent offenses, two years for second or subsequent failure-to-register convictions, 18 months for non-serious violent offenses, and one year for several enumerated felony categories), with limits to avoid exceeding statutory maximums. The Department of Corrections must conduct risk assessments for felony offenders sentenced to community custody, supervise specified offender categories, and its authorized supervision period is generally tied to the length of community custody and may be reduced by earned supervision compliance credit. The bill also amends DOC reentry planning (RCW 72.09.270) to require individualized reentry plans and standardized assessments for most incarcerated individuals (with limited exceptions), timing milestones for assessment and plan development, minimum plan contents (including family contact, education/employment portfolio, and service connections), assistance obtaining an identicard or driver’s license before release when applicable, and procedures for sharing plan information and county placement decisions. It creates a new requirement for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to review and update sex-offender registration model policies and report to the Legislature and the sex offender policy board by specified dates. Sections 3, 5, and 8 of the act are set to expire January 1, 2026, and Sections 4, 6, and 9 take effect January 1, 2026. The excerpts provided are incomplete in places: the Table 2 reenactment is truncated, some amended statutory text and subsection numbering appear mid-edit or partially omitted, and other referenced new sections and effective/expiration details for the entire act are not fully shown here, so the full scope and precise statutory language of all amendments cannot be confirmed from the material supplied.

If enacted, the bill makes failure-to-register conduct more likely to be charged as a felony when tied to felony sex or kidnapping offenses while leaving lesser registration failures as gross misdemeanors, and it requires judges to add fixed periods of community custody to prison sentences (for example three years for many sex or serious violent offenses, two years for repeat failures-to-register, 18 months for non-serious violent offenses, and one year for a range of first-time offenses including some first felony failures-to-register and specified drug, firearm, or gang-related felonies). Courts must trim community custody if the combined confinement and custody would exceed statutory maximums. The Department of Corrections must conduct risk assessments for every felony offender sentenced to community custody, supervise larger groups of people under new mandatory categories (including some regardless of assessed risk), develop individualized reentry plans on a tight timeline, help qualifying people obtain an ID before release (DOC pays fees and provides non-mug-shot photos on request), and remit collected legal financial payments daily to superior court clerks. Those most affected are people convicted of sex offenses, kidnapping, or failures to register (facing higher penalties and longer supervised terms), the courts (which must impose and adjust mandatory custody terms), and the Department of Corrections (which will have increased supervision, assessment, planning, identification, and information‑sharing duties). Expect increased DOC workload and related costs for assessments, supervision capacity, reentry planning, ID fees, and electronic information sharing, and potential operational changes for law enforcement and local reentry partners; the bill also directs the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to review registration policies and report by December 1, 2025 (update by June 1, 2026). Some implementation details and the full text of several amendments are missing from the provided excerpts (including the complete Table 2 and some effective/expiration cross-references), so the precise scope and timing of all changes cannot be confirmed here.