EPHRATA – According to staff at the Grant County Jail, roughly 90% of detainees arrive with some substance abuse-related concern. Of those, roughly 70% have some level of dependency on fentanyl. The Grant County Morgue is seeing sadly similar increases.
“We’re starting to see (fentanyl addiction) as a huge issue inside the jail,” said Grant County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Chief Deputy Phil Coats. “And, from what I’m hearing talking to some of the people that are withdrawing from it is that it is so severe that actual suicide rates have actually gone up in jails because they don’t want to have to deal (with withdrawals.) It hurts too much.” .
OLYMPIA – On Sunday, the final day of Washington’s 2023 legislative session, lawmakers failed to pass Senate Bill 5536. The bill was intended to create a solution to a Washington Supreme Court decision decriminalizing controlled substances in Washington.
“The failure of the legislature to vote on a fix to the Blake decision is a huge shock being as it was supposed to be one of the priorities of this legislative session,” said Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr.
OLYMPIA On March 30, Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law an act that increases the penalties for the crime of custodial sexual misconduct in the second degree.
Substitute Senate Bill 5033 changes the classification of second-degree custodial sexual misconduct from a gross misdemeanor to a class C felony. The change increases the maximum confinement from 364 days to five years, and the maximum fine from $5,000 to $10,000.
The change also means that those found guilty of custodial sexual misconduct in the second degree would serve their sentence in a state correctional facility instead of a county jail, according to Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr.