Washington State’s Sentencing Guidelines and Offender Score

By Vasiliki Georgoulas-Sherry & Hanna Hernandez

Abstract -- In 2019, Washington State passed legislation (Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1109) establishing the Washington State Criminal Sentencing Task Force to “review state sentencing laws … for the purpose of: (a) reducing sentencing implementation complexities and errors; (b) improving the effectiveness of the sentencing system; and (c) promoting and improving public safety” (401). To respond to the legislation, the Washington Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) housed in the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) applied for and received the 2018 State Justice Statistics (SJS) Grant from Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to review Washington State’s offender score, and other situational calculations associated to the offender score, on rates of recidivism rates. Background Washington State’s Sentencing Guidelines In 1981, the Washington State Legislature enacted the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA), which established the Sentencing Guidelines Commission (SGC) and directed it to recommend to the Legislature a determinate sentencing system for adult felonies. The principal goal of the new sentencing guidelines system was to ensure that offenders who commit similar crimes and have similar criminal histories receive equivalent sentences; specifically, sentences were to be proportionate and determined by the offender’s criminal record and the offense’s seriousness level. In 1982, the SGC completed the original adult felony sentencing "grid", and, in 1983, the Legislature adopted the SGC’s recommendations into law. The SRA was enacted to help make the criminal justice system more accountable to the public by developing a sentencing system that structures or guides, but does not eliminate, the use of judicial discretion in sentencing adult felony offenders. The SRA took effect for crimes committed on or after July 1, 1984 (prior to this date, sentences imposed for adult felonies in Washington were indeterminate which meant that courts had wide discretion over whether to impose a prison sentence and the length of any sentence or not). Codified in Chapter 9.94A RCW the SRA contains the guidelines and procedures used by the courts to impose sentences for adult felonies. The SGC continues to advise the Legislature on necessary adjustments to the sentencing structure, and the Legislature has made many modifications to Washington State’s sentencing laws. Washington State’s Sentencing Guideline Structure Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 9.94A.510 presents Washington State’s sentencing grid (see Table 1). Under the Washington State’s sentencing grid, the rows signify offense seriousness levels (range of I to XVI) while columns signify offender scores (also known as criminal history score) (denotes a measure of prior conviction history and ranges of 0 to 9 or more). Within each cell on the sentencing grid, a presumptive sentencing range is included (for example, an offense seriousness level of VII and an offender score of a 5 has a presumptive sentence range of 41 to 54 months); the range denotes standard minimum and maximum confinement term that may be imposed for a particular combination of offender score and seriousness level. Higher offender scores and offense seriousness level are associated with longer sentence lengths. It is important to note that not all offenses are ranked. The Offender Score is calculated based on five factors: 1) Number of prior criminal convictions or juvenile dispositions 2) Relationship between any prior offense(s) and the current offense of conviction 3) Presence of other current convictions 4) Community custody status at the time the crime was committed 5) Length of crime-free time between offenses. Additionally, the scoring rules vary depending on the type of offense and circumstances of the current conviction. Some of the situational calculations include but are not limited to multipliers and community supervision points. There are instances that necessitate a scoring alteration in terms of points (such as points associated with juvenile adjudications) and multipliers were introduced in efforts to weight appropriate instances; sentence multipliers add additional time to the sentencing range for the current offense, based on criminal history which preceded the offense under adjudication. This means that the sentencing range is increased based upon the way the offender score is calculated when multipliers are brought into play. A community supervision (i.e., when an offender is sentenced to direct supervision under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Department of Corrections (WA DOC)) point is an additional point added when the current offense is committed while on community custody for a previous offense. While there are other circumstances, this report will only look at the 3 potential impact of multipliers and community supervision points on offender score and, potentially, recidivism. Current Report In 2019, Washington State passed legislation (Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1109) establishing the Washington State Criminal Sentencing Task Force to “review state sentencing laws … for the purpose of: (a) reducing sentencing implementation complexities and errors; (b) improving the effectiveness of the sentencing system; and (c) promoting and improving public safety” (401). To respond to the legislation, the SAC applied for and received the 2018 SJS Grant from BJS to assess and review sentencing guidelines and offender score. Specifically, the current report reviews Washington State’s offender score, and other situational calculations associated to the offender score, on rates of recidivism rates. 

Olympia, WA: Washington State Statistical Analysis Center, 2023. 62p.