This bill creates a new law establishing the council of health care coordination for youth and adults in facilities of confinement, placed in the Department of Health and enacted as a new chapter in Title 70 RCW. It defines a voting membership including a chair appointed by the Secretary of Health (who must be a physician or epidemiologist), heads or designees from several state agencies, representatives from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, a federally recognized tribe (appointed by the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs), county juvenile court administrators, one person with lived experience of institutional health care, two behavioral health administrative services organization representatives, and the Governor or designee. The council may include nonvoting members, members serve without additional compensation but may receive travel reimbursements and stipends under cited RCWs, and the Department of Health may appoint an administrative assistant subject to appropriation. The council’s duties and procedures are administrative and procedural: it must review current laws and policies on health care information sharing among agencies that house confined individuals, make recommendations to improve information and data sharing and coordination, create a communication forum among listed agencies and federal partners, appoint advisory committees (reviewed biennially), track member agencies’ relevant activities, and participate in or coordinate with future related statewide efforts. Meetings must be held at least quarterly, called under specified rules including a written request of eight members, conducted under the Open Public Meetings Act, and the council must file a report on prior-year activities to the Governor and appropriate legislative committees by November 1, 2025 and annually thereafter in compliance with RCW 43.01.036. This is an administrative/organizational law creating a new council and procedural requirements; it does not create new crimes or change penalties. Some details are not provided in the extracted text: the statutory text of the referenced definitions (the RCW definition of “correctional institution” and the federal definition of “institute for mental disease”), the selection or appointment process for certain member seats, which legislative committees are the “appropriate” recipients of reports, and funding beyond the administrative assistant appointment are not specified here.

If enacted, the bill creates a new council housed at the Department of Health to bring together state agencies, tribal representatives, county juvenile court administrators, sheriffs’ organizations, behavioral health administrators, and people with lived experience to improve communication and coordination of health care for people in prisons, jails, psychiatric hospitals, juvenile facilities, and similar confinement settings. Agencies named will need to assign staff to participate, track health-related activities in their jurisdictions, attend at least quarterly meetings, and contribute to an annual report beginning November 1, 2025, so expect increased ongoing staff time for participation, information-gathering, and interagency coordination. The Department of Health will incur some direct costs: members serve without additional pay but receive travel reimbursements and stipends under state rules, and an administrative assistant may be hired if the legislature provides funding. The bill does not specify broader operating funds, the full appointment process for several seats, or which legislative committees will receive reports, so the total staffing and budget impact and some membership-selection details remain unclear.