(1) No later than July 1, 2007, and every biennium thereafter starting with the biennium beginning July 1, 2009, the department shall prepare a list of counties and rural multicounty geographic areas in which work release facilities, community justice centers and other community-based correctional facilities are anticipated to be sited during the next three fiscal years and transmit the list to the office of financial management and the counties on the list. The list may be updated as needed.

(2) In preparing the list, the department shall make substantial efforts to provide for the equitable distribution of work release, community justice centers, or other community-based correctional facilities among counties. The department shall give great weight to the following factors in determining equitable distribution:

(a) The locations of existing residential facilities owned or operated by, or operated under contract with, the department in each county;

(b) The number and proportion of adult offenders sentenced to the custody or supervision of the department by the courts of the county or rural multicounty geographic area; and

(c) The number of adult registered sex offenders classified as level II or III and adult sex offenders registered per thousand persons residing in the county.

(3) For purposes of this section, "equitable distribution" means siting or locating work release, community justice centers, or other community-based correctional facilities in a manner that reasonably reflects the proportion of offenders sentenced to the custody or supervision of the department by the courts of each county or rural multicounty geographic area designated by the department, and, to the extent practicable, the proportion of offenders residing in particular jurisdictions or communities within such counties or rural multicounty geographic areas. Equitable distribution is a policy goal, not a basis for any legal challenge to the siting, construction, occupancy, or operation of any facility anywhere in the state.

Findings—2007 c 483: See RCW 72.78.005.