House Bill 118 passed the House on Friday. The bill would remove the restriction on prisoners that keeps them from having computers in their cells, and it expands access to the internet for the purpose of rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
The bill, sponsored by Sitka’s Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, is intended to give prisoners an avenue to rehabilitate and prepare themselves to reenter society. According to Kreiss-Tomkins, recidivism is strongly linked to the inability to get a job after being released, which is why 68 percent of prisoners are re-arrested within three years, and 83 percent within nine years of being released. Without access to computers, those in prison will become unemployable.
Read more about HB 118 at this link.
An amendment by Rep. George Rauscher put sideboards on how much internet access prisoners would have. That amendment was rejected by the liberal majority of Matt Claman, Harriet Drummond, Bryce Edgmon, Zack Fields, Sarah Hannan, Grice Hopkins, Andy Josephson, Kreiss-Tomkins, Kelly Merrick, Daniel Ortiz, Calvin Schrage, Liz Snyder, Ivy Spohnholz, Andi Story, Louise Stutes, Geran Tarr, Chris Tuck, Adam Wool, and Tiffany Zulkosky.
The bill passed 31-1, with six absent. Rep. DeLena Johnson was the lone “no” vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
