H-0856.1
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1274
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By House Community Safety (originally sponsored by Representatives Stearns, Hackney, Doglio, Ramel, Reed, Ormsby, Parshley, Pollet, Macri, Simmons, and Hill)
READ FIRST TIME 02/10/25.
AN ACT Relating to retroactively applying the requirement to exclude certain juvenile convictions from an offender score regardless of the date of the offense; adding a new section to chapter 9.94A RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that, with the support of eight Washington tribal governments and indigenous organizations along with a broad array of other advocates, the legislature passed Engrossed House Bill No. 1324 in 2023 to end the practice of assigning "juvenile points" to lengthen state prison sentences. The legislature finds that black, indigenous, and people of color are disproportionately impacted by prior juvenile felony adjudications. The legislature recognizes that the 57 tribes of the affiliated tribes of northwest Indians have adopted a resolution urging the legislature to retroactively end the practice of assigning "juvenile points" to lengthen state prison sentences. Additionally, in 2024, an intertribal coalition of 23 tribal governments and indigenous organizations wrote the legislature to support ending this practice retroactively.
(2) The legislature acknowledges that historical, intergenerational trauma caused by the mass incarceration of indigenous children and juveniles through Indian boarding schools, where they endured physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, and the separation and division of indigenous families, continues to deeply affect indigenous people today.