This bill amends existing Washington law by changing RCW 71.09.025 and RCW 71.09.140 to add procedural requirements for agencies that control the release of persons who may meet the sexually violent predator criteria. It requires an “agency with jurisdiction” (including DOC, the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, and DSHS) to refer in writing a person who may meet those criteria to the county prosecuting attorney and the attorney general at least three months before specified anticipated releases, discharges, or returns to the community. The agency must provide specified institutional, legal, and mental health records with the referral, and prosecuting agencies are authorized to obtain records under existing statutes, use inquiry-judge procedures, and use public records procedures; disclosure of those records is limited to performance of duties under this chapter. The amendment also provides immunity from liability for agencies and employees who act in good faith under the referral provision. The bill also changes and clarifies notice and notification procedures. It requires the referring agency to give written notice of an anticipated release date to designated local and legislative officials and requires DSHS to send written notice of conditional release, change of address while on conditional release, unconditional discharge, or escape to a specified list of local officials and legislators at the earliest possible date and no later than 30 days before the event (except escapes). DSHS must notify the Washington State Patrol of releases of all persons designated as sexually violent predators so releases are entered into the Washington Crime Information Center. If release or discharge results from a court order, DSHS must send notices within seven calendar days after the order is filed. The bill specifies that temporary returns to confinement or to secure transition facilities are not a change of address for notice purposes unless certain conditions apply, requires immediate notice to local law enforcement on escape and recapture notices within two working days, allows victims, certain witnesses, and others named in writing to receive confidential notices, and directs notices for minors to parents or guardians. The text shown is limited to amendments of those two RCW sections and refers to other statutes for definitions and procedures (for example, the statutory definition of “sexually violent predator” and certain procedural chapters), which are not included here; those external definitions and procedures are therefore uncertain from the provided extract.

If enacted, the bill forces the state agencies that control releases (Department of Corrections, Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, and Department of Social and Health Services) to formally flag and send detailed records about anyone who might meet sexually violent predator criteria to county prosecutors and the attorney general three months before expected releases, certain juvenile releases, incompetency releases, or not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity releases. Prosecutors gain earlier, broader access to records and can use existing inquiry and public-record procedures to pursue civil commitment; DSHS must also send written release, conditional release, address change, discharge, and escape/recapture notices to local elected officials, sheriffs, legislators, and the Washington State Patrol (with SVP releases entered into the statewide crime information system). Victims, witnesses, and other designated people can request confidential notice about a specific person, and officials acting in good faith get immunity from liability. Practically, the affected agencies will face more administrative work and likely modest new costs to gather records, meet the three-month and 30-day notice deadlines, update procedures for confidentiality, and enter release data to the Washington Crime Information Center. County prosecutors and law enforcement will get earlier warnings and more records to decide whether to file SVP actions, increasing their workload too. The bill relies on definitions and procedures found in other statutes (for example, the precise legal definition of “sexually violent predator” and detailed inquiry-judge or public-record processes), which are not included here, so how some referrals and record-access steps play out in practice is unclear.