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Senate Health & Welfare reviews minor Judiciary edits to S193 on forensic facility operations
Summary
The committee reviewed minor Judiciary Committee edits to S193 on forensic facility operations: adding “sex or gender” as a basis for dividing residents and removing a clinical‑needs qualifier so the Department of Corrections must generally consider multi‑building configurations; no formal vote was recorded.
The Senate Health and Welfare committee on March 24 reviewed Judiciary Committee edits to S193, the bill addressing operations of a proposed forensic facility. Eric Disch of the Office of Legislative Council explained the two technical changes to the bill and said the agency had no objection.
Disch told the committee the Judiciary Committee added the phrase “sex or gender” so the facility could, but would not be required to, separate people committed there on that basis. The committee also removed language that had required consideration of dividing the facility "if required by the clinical needs of transferred persons," making the Department of Corrections’ duty to consider multiple buildings a general obligation rather than one limited by that qualifier.
According to Disch, the change means the Department of Corrections would be required to consider whether to manage the facility in separate buildings as part of its management duties, without the earlier conditional language. Disch characterized the edits as minor and not “hugely substantive.” He said the agency reviewing the bill was fine with the changes.
Committee members were asked whether they wanted their names removed from the amendment; none did. The chair noted the Institutions committee would review the bill that afternoon and Judiciary would consider it the following day. The hearing record in this session does not include a formal motion or roll‑call vote on the amendment.
Next steps: Institutions will examine the bill later the same day and the Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take it up tomorrow, according to the chair’s remarks.
