A new law in King County will limit options judges have in dealing with some defendants.
Prior to trial, judges can release defendants from jail by ordering pre-trial options created a decade ago within the county's Community Corrections Division.
A recently passed county ordinance prohibits judges from allowing some charged with violent crimes to phone in their whereabouts.
Council Chair Larry Gossett, who fought the legislation, said it violates the law's "innocent until proven guilty" principle.
But it could've been worse. The law's sponsor, Bob Ferguson, who chairs the Law, Justice, Health & Human Services Committee, initially sought to eliminate all pre-trial alternatives for defendants charged with a violent or sexual offense if a jury had convicted them of a similar charge within a decade.
Pre-trial alternatives include daily phone-in reporting, electronic home monitoring and work release.
A Seattle Democrat now running for attorney general, Ferguson said he got the idea after serving on a state task force that examined bail policies after Maurice Clemmons shot and killed four police officers in Lakewood, Wash.
During that work, Ferguson said he discovered that the county had no way to track which defendants got pre-trial options and decided the county needed criteria.
Part of his proposal included legislation the council passed last year to create a software tracking system for defendants released to Community Corrections. That will take two years to develop. During that time, Ferguson proposed eliminating pre-trial alternatives for those convicted of and charged with another violent crime.
Gossett said the law was not needed: Judges already have criteria for pre-trial release.
The scope of the problem is limited, he added. Gossett said the council found precisely 15 people judges had released to Community Corrections over an 18-month period who met Ferguson's criteria.
In most of those cases, defendants were either convicted of or pleaded guilty to a lesser charge or the prosecutor dropped the charges altogether prior to trial. Ferguson's proposal would have kept them in jail needlessly before trial, Gossett said.
The new ordinance, which takes effect Aug. 15, is the result of some damage control by Gossett and fellow Councilmember Joe McDermott, who made an amendment that dramatically softened the law.
Gossett is satisified with the result, which will mean "the majority of [defendants] will still be eligible for these programs."