Former King County Sheriff blasts change from offender to individual

Congressman and former King County Sheriff Dave Reichert met us outside the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

He’d seen our report of the memo to Washington Department of Corrections staff, instructing them to phase out the use of the word offender and replace it with "individuals," or terms like "student," or "patient," when appropriate.

“I'm totally baffled by why the Department of Corrections would be deliberating what to call a person who has committed a crime who is currently incarcerated. Those people are convicted criminals,” Reichert said.

Reichert remembered that 15 years ago this month his, his department captured the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway.

As a detective, Dave Reichert worked on the case.

He acted as a pall bearer for one of the 49 known victims and as Sheriff, he confronted Ridgway in the interrogation room.

“Gary Ridgway is now a student?” Reichert asked incredulously. “Can you imagine what the mother and the fathers and the sisters and the brothers are thinking when they hear that they want to label Gary Ridgway a student?”

However, most inmates will eventually be released, and Secretary of Corrections Dick Morgan wants to avoid negative stereotypes that may impede an inmate’s journey back to society.

In contrast, Reichert says, “I don't think it's a stereotype when you label somebody what they really are. A person who has committed a crime and has done 5 years 10 years in Monroe, Itit's not a stereotype to say you're a criminal. I think our criminal justice system here in Washington State has more to worry about than what they are going to call the inmates."

The Department of Corrections says the US Department of Justice and the State of Pennsylvania are already undertaking similar initiatives.

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