The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Leonard Christian’s subscribers on Feb. 7, 2025. To subscribe to Sen. Christian’s e-newsletters, click here.

In Senate Human Services Committee, Jan. 27.

Sometimes Olympia seems to put its priorities in the wrong place. Ever since the current majority party won full control of the Legislature in 2018, we have seen a torrent of legislation aimed at reducing the burdens on the criminal class. Weaker laws, shorter sentences, early releases, greater use of community custody and policies allowing lawbreakers to sue police have all gotten the thumbs-up from our majority colleagues.

It’s as if we’ve forgotten that crimes create victims.

Our primary concern should be the people, businesses and families victimized by crime, not the people who commit them. That’s why I have introduced Senate Bill 5639, to waive tuition and fees at state colleges and universities for the children of murder victims.

This bill recognizes the impacts of crime extend far beyond the primary victim to spouses, children and others. Often murder victims are the breadwinners for their families, and their dependents face not just the loss of a loved one but generational financial ruin as well.

I am particularly sensitive to this issue because I saw first-hand how crime affected my own family. My mother was raped in a gas-station bathroom in 1965. She dropped out of school, stole the family truck and ran away from home to live on the streets of California, where she gave birth to me. My sisters, my brother – we were all haunted by this trauma, and it made our success in life all the harder.

Murder is the worst of crimes, and this is a good place to start in correcting this disparity. Our state already provides tuition waivers for the children and spouses of police officers, firefighters and highway workers who are killed in the line of duty, or who suffer total disability as the result of an on-the-job injury. This bill would extend waivers to the dependent children of murder victims who were Washington residents at the time of the crime.

We can never replace parents who are taken from their families, but we can bring a small measure of balance to the Legislature’s approach to crime.

Senate majority guts Parental Rights initiative

Action demonstrates disrespect for the people, the process and the constitution

“Children belong to their parents, not the state.” — Click here to see my speech on SB 5181.

On Wednesday we saw the first major floor fight of the year in the Senate as the majority party passed a bill to gut last year’s parental rights initiative. When I-2081 was presented to the Legislature in 2024, our majority colleagues chose to pass it in the House and Senate rather than sending it to the ballot. Unfortunately, because the people didn’t vote on it, special constitutional protections for initiatives did not apply. This session our colleagues are taking full advantage of the opportunity they created for themselves, by rewriting the initiative, eliminating the provisions they don’t like, undermining the will of the people, and making a mockery of the initiative process.

During Senate debate, I offered two amendments. The majority accepted one of them, restoring immediate parental notification if a shooting takes place on school grounds. But they rejected another that cuts to the heart of the problem with this legislative rewrite. This amendment would have eliminated an “emergency clause” in the bill. When a bill contains a clause that declares an emergency, it takes effect immediately upon the governor’s signature, and the people are barred from running a referendum to overturn it. Instead they would have to file another initiative, which requires double the number of signatures.

The 30-19 party-line vote on this bill was an appalling display of disrespect to the thousands of volunteer signature gatherers, the 454,000 people who signed the petitions, and to the state constitution, which declares that the initiative is “the first power reserved by the people.”

In the news:

Hearing puts spotlight on juvenile justice reform efforts

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about my visit to the troubled Green Hill School facility in Chehalis and the efforts we are making in the Senate Republican Caucus this year to reform our juvenile justice system. This week several reform bills were heard in the Senate Human Services Committee, where I am the ranking member. These included my bill, SB 5260, which would allow juvenile offenders over age 18 to voluntarily transfer to adult prisons managed by the Department of Corrections. Recent changes to state policies keep juvenile offenders in the separate juvenile system through age 25, resulting in severe overcrowding and unsafe conditions. This measure would give young offenders an opportunity to choose to move to less crowded facilities and provide access to vocational programs offered by DOC. This bill is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday.

The Center Square posted this account of the hearing:

Lawmakers wrestle with juvenile correctional facility crisis

By T.J. Martinell

Washington lawmakers are exploring a variety of legislative solutions to address chronic issues at its juvenile rehabilitation facilities, in particular Green Hill School located in Chehalis.

However, the proposals have received pushback over concerns either regarding the well-being of juvenile convicts or the communities they’re expected to reenter once they’ve served their sentence.

To read more, click here.

What are they thinking? – criminal justice edition

This week I am continuing my rundown of the session’s worst bills, with an accent on criminal justice. With this newsletter we also begin a new scoring system, what I call the Mindblow Score. Let me offer a warning: Some of these could cause your head to explode many times over.

SB 5133 – This bill would allow judges to reduce criminal sentences if the offender is a primary caregiver.

Mindblow score:

HB 1178 – This bill would further weaken voter-approved sentence enhancements for armed crimes, and eliminate them entirely in some cases. Mindblow score:
HB 1131 – This bill would expand the state Clemency and Pardons Board from five to 10 members and pack it with members likely to vote for community custody and early release. Mindblow score:
SB 5521 – Under the pretext of equity, this bill would restrict the ability of police to pull over, cite and search drivers during traffic stops, making it more difficult for law enforcement officers to do their job and keep us safe. Mindblow score:

Thanks for reading,

Sen. Leonard Christian

4th Legislative District

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Mailing address: Post Office Box 40404, Olympia, WA 98504

Email: Leonard.Christian@leg.wa.gov

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