Olympia Democrats Deny Indigenous Second Chance Legislation

Photo: Jarrette Work, Underscore News

This week the Washington State House Democrats refused to advance a second chance bill that was intended to benefit hundreds of incarcerated Indigenous people in our state.

HB 1274, which was prime-sponsored by Navajo state Representative Chris Stearns, would have allowed a resentencing opportunity for Indigenous people incarcerated in state prisons based on crimes they committed as juveniles.

Indigenous Lawmakers and Tribal Nations Seek (or Sought) Restorative Justice

In 2023, the Washington state Legislature stopped the practice of punishing people twice because of their prior involvement in the state juvenile justice system. The legislature found “that incarcerated indigenous people are the most disproportionately impacted by prior juvenile felony adjudications, followed closely by black people, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanic people.”

The 2023 legislation was championed, in part, by Rep. Debra Lekanoff (Tlingit) with support from eight Tribal nations and organizations. However, the legislature only applied this change to new cases.

That left behind hundreds of currently incarcerated people causing them to serve state sentences they would no longer receive should they be sentenced today without their prior juvenile adjudications, or “points.” 

After 23 Tribal nations and Indigenous organizations supported a bill to make the policy retroactive in 2024, Rep. Stearns and Sen. Claudia Kauffman (Nez Perce) reupped the legislation this session to correct this generational inequality that disproportionately harms Indigenous communities and communities of color.

In October 2024, the 57 Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians passed Resolution 24-33, “Restoring Hope for our Incarcerated Relatives,” calling for “state legislation to retroactively end the practice of assigning ‘juvenile points’ to lengthen state prison sentences.” The resolution was formally transmitted to state lawmakers on a government-to-government basis.

In turn, 21 Tribal nations and Indigenous organizations supported HB 1274, including the Muckleshoot, Tulalip, Suquamish, Jamestown S’Klallam, Colville, Spokane, Yakama, Sauk-Suaittle, Skokomish, Hoh, Stillaguamish, Squaxin Island, Cowlitz, Quinault, Chehalis, Snoqualmie, and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribes, as well as the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Huy, and Seattle Indian Health Board. The Washington Tribal State Court Forum also supported HB 1274.  

The bill would have required an individual to prove their rehabilitation to a state court judge before potentially receiving a reduced sentence and being allowed to return to the community.

Despite the unprecedented Tribal coalition, state House Democrats refused to vote on HB 1274 on Wednesday, killing the bill.

“That was a slap in the face to the Tribes,” said Huy Chairman, Gabe Galanda, who helped build the coalition. “As it turns out, Tribal existence and Indigenous humanity aren’t important to state Democratic lawmakers. It’s all lip service.”

There are no plans for the Tribes to return to Olympia next session to further advocate for this reform.

“Three strikes, we’re out,” continued Galanda, in regard to the three bills since 2023 that did not succeed in providing second chances to the hundreds of Indigenous people serving an average 9.3 additional years because of juvenile points.

Indigenous People Are (and Will Remain) Disproportionately Harmed

In 2023, public records from the Department of Corrections showed that 41% of Indigenous people incarcerated by the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) have juvenile felonies on their criminal history, and that there were up to 422 incarcerated Indigenous people serving sentences enhanced by their prior involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Of the 29 Tribal nations in Washington state, 23—or 80%—of them have incarcerated members with juvenile felony adjudications. By 2023, the Tribes with the largest number of members in DOC custody on juvenile points sentences were the Colville Tribes, with 39; the Yakama Nation, with 26; the Lummi Nation, with 16; the Puyallup Tribe, with all; and the Quinault Nation, with 10.

“Each of these individuals comes from a family, band, society, nation—an extended Tribal kinship network,” explained Galanda. “Their prolonged displacement ramifies throughout thousands of Indigenous lives. Generations are being lost.”

Indigenous adults suffering juvenile points sentences also serve disproportionately longer sentences than their white counterparts. That in part is because Indigenous youth are three times more likely than white youth to receive state juvenile adjudications rather than deferrals. Those adjudications become “points” and translate into extra years of prison time.

“Democratic lawmakers know these facts and statistics. They’ve admitted the state’s sentencing policy is racist,” continued Galanda. “But none of it matters. Because they simply, they truly, don’t care about Indigenous humanity.”