GOP Washington Lawmaker Trolls Felon Enfranchisement Proponents
In Washington, newly elected state Sen. Leonard Christian (R-Spokane Valley) wasted little time in introducing a bill in February 2025 to save a building slated for demolition at the state Capitol in Olympia and turn it into a work-release center for state prisoners. The state senator explained that he wants prisoners to be closer to his Democratic counterparts, whose efforts at criminal justice reform he opposes.
Christian, 59, is not the first politician to troll his opposition with a tongue-in-cheek bill that has zero chance of passing. He said his “Inmates for Olympia Act,” SB 5760, was prompted by the Democratic-controlled legislature’s 2021 passage of a measure that automatically restores voting rights for convicted felons, as well as a current proposal, HB 1118, that would restore their right to own firearms.
“But why should we stop there?” Christian teased in a statement accompanying his proposal. “As this Legislature works to reduce the stigma of having committed a crime, it can lead by example by fully integrating our inmate population with the Capitol community.”
Fellow lawmakers were silent on the proposal, apparently focused instead on voting down another of Christian’s measures that would have maintained an exemption for clergy from any requirement to report child abuse or neglect that they discover during confession.
Sources: Centralia Chronicle, Washington State Standard
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