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SB 5490

Concerning health care coverage for retired or disabled employees denied coverage for failure to timely notify the authority of their intent to defer coverage.

2023-2024 Regular Session Introduced by Steve Conway and 5 co-sponsors

Requires local jails to create and implement standardized, PREA-compliant search policies for transgender/intersex detainees, protecting privacy and limiting cross-gender searches.

Effective date 3/30/2023.
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Bill Summary · SB 5490

SB 5490 — Summary (2025 Regular Session)

Status: By resolution, returned to Senate Rules Committee for third reading (last action 2025-04-27). Introduced: 01/24/2025. Fiscal: appropriation none; fiscal note available. Effective date: 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed. Deadline to adopt local policies: September 1, 2025 (if enacted).

Purpose

Require local jails to adopt standardized policies for conducting searches of transgender and intersex persons that at minimum comply with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and protect dignity and safety while addressing security needs.

Key provisions

  • New law added to chapter 70.48 RCW: local jail administrators must develop and implement search policies for transgender and intersex individuals that are minimally compliant with PREA and the bill’s standards (as of PREA rules in effect on 1/1/2025).
  • Prohibition on searches conducted solely to determine genital status. If genital status is unknown it may be determined by:
    • Conversation with the individual;
    • Review of medical records; or
    • As part of a broader medical exam conducted in private by a medical practitioner.
  • Training requirement: jails must train security staff to conduct cross‑gender and transgender/intersex searches in a professional, respectful, and least‑intrusive manner consistent with security needs.
  • Permissible approaches (as drafted in the substitute bill) for searches of transgender/intersex persons include:
    • Searches by a medical professional;
    • Searches conducted by female staff only;
    • Asking the individual which gender of staff they prefer; or
    • Conducting the search consistent with the individual's stated gender identity.
  • Daily‑living privacy: incarcerated persons must be able to shower, use toilet facilities, and change clothing without nonmedical staff of the opposite gender viewing breasts, buttocks, or genitalia, except in exigent circumstances or incidental routine checks. Opposite‑gender staff must announce their presence when entering housing units.
  • Cross‑gender searches allowed only in exigent circumstances. A jail’s inability to provide trained female staff is explicitly not an exigent circumstance.
  • Amendment to RCW 10.79.100 (strip and body cavity searches): clarifies privacy/location rules and specifies that strip searches generally should be performed/observed only by persons of the same gender; provides options for transgender, gender‑nonconforming, or intersex individuals (choose gender of searcher, medical professional, female staff, or matching stated gender identity); cross‑gender strip searches only in exigent circumstances.

Who is affected

  • Primary: transgender, intersex, and gender‑nonconforming people confined in city/county jails.
  • Secondary: local jail administrators, correctional/security staff, medical practitioners, and county/city budgets (training, policy development). No direct appropriation included in the bill text.

Procedural notes & amendments

  • Substitute bill S-1589.1 contains the current substantive text and the September 1, 2025 implementation deadline.
  • Several floor amendments were proposed (e.g., removing the “female staff only” or “medical professional” options; permitting staff to decline searches when biological sex differs). These amendments were filed but marked “NOT CONSIDERED” as of 04/27/2025 — they are not adopted in the substitute text unless later action occurs.
  • The bill was passed on third reading in one chamber (vote recorded 29–19 on 03/11/2025) and has moved through committee stages in the other; final enactment depends on further Senate Rules and floor action.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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