FCWPP Public Policy Agenda: 2012

This is a broad statement of FCWPPP's goals and objectives.  Specific action items will develop out of this agenda and will be communicated through action alerts as the legislative session progresses.

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Goals:

           i.      Give priority to efforts to repair the harm suffered by victims over attempts to punish offenders.

          ii.      Identify and address the causes of crime.

         iii.      Replace costly incarceration through diversion, drug treatment, job training, and education whenever appropriate.

         iv.      Redress the racial inequity of our current criminal justice system.

          v.      Support offenders’ efforts to redeem themselves and reintegrate into society.

Criminal Justice Objectives:

   i.      Restorative Justice: Support increased use of Restorative Justice programs as options for diversion of juvenile offenders

   ii.      Sentencing Reform and increased support for re-entry

• Maintain and expand earned early release and parole
• Retain funding for alcohol and drug dependency programs
• Repeal the Death Penalty

  iii.      Drug Law Reform

• Legalize and regulate marijuana use and cultivation, treating its abuse as a public health issue

   iv.      Voting Rights

• Protect and increase voting rights for ex-prisoners

Economic Justice, including Health Care and Marriage Equality

Economic Justice Goals:

          i.      Maintain and protect the safety net for economically or physically challenged state residents, which benefits society by permitting individuals to be healthier contributors to their communities

         ii.  Prevent levels of disparity in wealth and opportunity that lead to social dysfunction and increased criminal activity

         iii.  Create and maintain programs, systems, and institutions required to keep people in good physical health

Economic Justice Objectives:

           i.      Health Care Public Option: Help implement federal health care reform to enhance access, maintain and improve quality while controlling costs, and support a Public Option for comprehensive delivery of quality Health Care at the lowest cost possible on the state level.

          ii.      Increase state support for Family Planning

         iii.      Social Safety Net: Protect and repair what is left of the social safety net and look for opportunities to repair that net

• Oppose any additional reduction of Basic Health Plan benefits or reductions of support provided through Disability Lifeline
• Reinstate programs still needed by our challenged neighbors

          iv.      Tax reform: Reform the state tax structure to be more equitable and create revenue needed to restore and retain basic services such as education, health care, and the support needed by those we label disabled

• Support efforts to close tax loopholes that do not benefit our state as a whole

           v.      Marriage Equality: Support marriage for same-sex couples

Local Responses to Global Challenges

Global Challenges Goals:

         i.      Maintain the environmental balance that supports the needs of all living creatures while also protecting public health and providing an improved quality of life

        ii.      Ensure an improved economic future by not wasting or compromising our environmental resources

       iii.      Provide local control over state assets to increase state resources

Global Challenges Objectives:

        i.      Fulfill Clean Energy Initiative supporting jobs and economic development

       ii.      Prevent attempts to weaken, delay, or roll back state environmental laws and programs that are critical for clean air, clean water, and healthy communities

       iii.      Reduce the costs born by taxpayers, such as for regulation, to protect our environment

       iv.      Establish a State Financial Institute

        v.      Support Family Planning (see 2.b.ii, above)

        vi.      Public Transit: Seek new revenue to restore and expand service

Support Peace

Peace Goals: Support Quaker Testimonies for Peace

Peace Objectives

         i.      Oppose funding of the expansion of the explosives handling wharf at the Kitsap/Bangor naval base

        ii.      Prevent exploitation of the public investment in education to support military recruitment

FCWPP Public Policy Priorities: 2012

 Specific bills to implement the priorities are indicated if available.

Criminal Justice

• Restorative Justice (HB 1775): Support increased use of restorative justice programs as options for diversion of juvenile offenders
• Maintain and expand earned early release (SB 5866) and parole (HB 2521)
• Retain funding for alcohol and drug dependency treatment programs as alternatives to incarceration
• Repeal the Death Penalty (SB 6283; HB 2468)
• Legalize and regulate marijuana use and cultivation, treating its abuse as a public health issue (medical use of marijuana is SB 6265)

 Economic Justice

• Health Care: Establish a public option for the health insurance exchange at the state level
• Family Planning: Increase state support
• Social Safety Net: Protect and repair what is left of the social safety net, including Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline
• Tax Reform: Make the state tax structure more equitable and create revenue needed to restore and retain basic services such as education and health care

 Civil Rights

• Marriage Equality (SB 6239): Support marriage for same-sex couples

 Local Responses to Global Challenges

• Oppose attempts to weaken, delay, or roll back state environmental laws
• Establish a State Financial Institution (HB 2434; SB 6310) to increase state revenue and provide needed capital to stimulate the economy

FCWPP Public Policy Agenda 2011

approved by FCWPP Steering Committee - January 15, 2011

1. CRIMINAL JUSTICE

    a. Goals: 

        i. Give priority to efforts to repair the harm suffered by victims over applying punishments to offenders

       ii. Enable offenders to redeem themselves and reintegrate into society

      iii. Replace costly incarceration through diversion, drug treatment, job training, and education

      iv. Redress racial inequity of current criminal justice system

    b. Objectives:

        i. Restorative Justice: Seek passage of enabling legislation to allow local law enforcement agencies            and courts to:

• Develop diversion programs that bring victims, offenders, and the community together to mend the harm done
• Determine which crimes and which individuals are best served by these programs
• Draft legislative language to define restorative justice

       ii. Sentencing Reform

•  Establish a sentencing review board, reduce sentence lengths, and expand earned release
• End the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for juveniles
• Reform Three Strikes law; use Indeterminate Sentence Review Board
• Death Penalty:  Register our moral objection to the death penalty 

      iii. Drug Reform

• Educate legislators and public about racial disparities in arrests and prosecution
• Decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana
• Work toward regulation of marijuana use and production, treating its abuse as a public health problem.

      iv. Voting Rights for Ex-Prisoners

• Delete misleading language on the ballot envelope and oppose bill to rescind voting rights restoration for ex-prisoners

2. LOCAL RESPONSES to GLOBAL CHALLENGES 

     a. Goals:

          i. Protect the health of our people and our environment

         ii. Promote population stabilization

        iii. Ensure responsible transportation options for sustainability

        iv. Provide local control over state investments

     b. Objectives

• Preserve Environmental Protection Programs
• Protect funding for the Take Charge program to promote population stabilization
• Provide Transportation Choices.     

             Support:   1.Cost Benefit Law for Multimodal Transportation Investments

                       2. Transportation Funding to Include Multimodal options

                       3. Complete Streets program to assure Multimodal accessibility

• Establish the Washington Investment Trust (formerly state bank) - Please see Action Updates for details!
• Coal Free Future for Washington: Address environmental impacts of coal and phase out TransAlta plant.

3.  ECONOMIC JUSTICE, INCLUDING HEALTH CARE  

     a. Goals: Maintain and protect the safety net for economically challenged state residents that benefits society by permitting individuals to be healthy contributors to the communities and keeping people healthy and out of jail.

     b. Objectives:

• Support State Health Care Programs: Maintain programs for the Basic Health Plan (BHP), Disability Lifeline (DL; formerly GA-U), Apple Health for Kids, Community Health Services, and Community Health Clinics (maintain programs even if funds are cut)
• Health Care Reform: Draft and implement rules for national health care act at the state level to maximize benefits for the social safety net
• Tax reform: Reform tax structure to be more equitable

FCWPP Legislative Priorities for the 2010 Session

Approved by Steering/Legislative Committee, 1-09-2010

PRIMARY PRIORITIES

1. Criminal Justice: Sentencing Reform. The long-term goal is to reform both the nature of sentencing and sentencing review, reducing the prison population. Specific efforts will include advocacy of a sentencing review board, reductions in sentence lengths, continuation and/or expansion of earned release, ending the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for juveniles, and placing all 3- strikers under the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board. FCWPP will continue to coordinate with the Three Strikes Reform consortium, which may shift to a broader view that includes sentencing review in general.

2. Drug Reform. Building on the Minute on the War on Drugs by the North Pacific Yearly Meeting, we seek the decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana and the replacement of the War on Drugs as far as practical with regulation and a public health model. Such an effort would help address the large number of persons incarcerated by minor drug offenses, such as possession of marijuana, as well as the larger issue of the ineffectiveness and damage to human lives of the War on Drugs. Request that the Washington Institute for Public Policy Research investigate the possible savings from decriminalization of marijuana.

3. Economic Justice, including Health Care. Support adequate funding for programs such as General Assistance Unemployable (GAU) and the Basic Health Plan (BHP) that address needs of those who are marginalized. Reestablish Working Group on Economic Justice. Oppose Initiative 1033, which would undercut funding for such programs. Support expiration of I-960, which requires a two-thirds majority to raise taxes, and adoption of new funding methods for state programs such as an income tax.

4. Voting Rights and Re-entry of Former Prisoners. Seek effective implementation of the Voting Rights Restoration Act and the housing vouchers provision – both passed in 2009, as well as the Re-entry bill 6157 enacted in 2007. Explore the opportunity opened by Appeals Court ruling that felons cannot be denied the vote while in prison. Other approaches include tax breaks for employers providing jobs to ex-prisoners.

Other issues to monitor and/or research

5. Restorative Justice. This is being investigated by a Working Group set up for that purpose. Efforts are underway to work with local officials to implement pilot programs and to convene a group of legislators to explore this changed paradigm for criminal justice. Request that the Washington Institute for Public Policy Research explore possible savings.

6. Environment: Local Responses to Global Challenges. Large and small transit agencies across the state are facing drastic budget shortfalls. We support increased transit funding to replace funding lost under Initiative 695, increase direct contribution to transit and other multi-modal programs, and provide local options for transit systems across the state. We also support a Complete Streets program which accommodates all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit systems, along with a program of Incentives for Transit-Oriented Communities, where compact, walkable design and policies play a crucial role in meeting our state’s greenhouse gas emissions goals.

7. Prison Closures. Advocate that the State Reformatory at Monroe not be chosen for closure (it is accessible by inmates’ families and prison volunteers and has more programs than any other prison in the system).

8. Post-secondary Education for Prisoners. Our long-term goal is to get higher education programs back into the prison system because of their beneficial effect on reducing violence on the inside and recidivism on the outside.

9. Prison Impact Statements. Bills proposing increases in sentencing would require a statement of financial impact, highlighting the high cost of increased incarceration.