Green River Killer will no longer be called an offender. Ex-sheriff is unhappy | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Washington state Republican Rep. Dave Reichert calls it an example of misguided political correctness.

On Wednesday, he criticized the Washington state Department of Corrections for a new policy that will phase out use of the word “offender.”

Instead, staffers have been instructed to refer to offenders with other words, such as “student” or “patient” or “individual,” or simply as incarcerated persons.

“We need to focus more on programs and policies that prevent crime and prevent young people from seeking that way of life instead of renaming prisoners with politically correct terminology,” said Reichert, who served as the sheriff of King County, Washington, before joining Congress.

The issue is a personal one for Reichert, who spent the bulk of his law enforcement career chasing down the most prolific serial killer in history: Gary Ridgway, a Seattle-area truck painter who admitted to killing 49 women.

Reichert wrote a book on his work, called “Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer.” And on Capitol Hill he’s considered a point man on law enforcement issues for House Republicans.

Reichert said Ridgway is not a “student” and that the state’s new policy puts too much emphasis on prisoners.

“It just removes the whole idea of accountability and responsibility and the victims’ rights in my opinion seem to be brushed aside,” he said.

Richard Morgan, Washington state’s corrections chief, sent a memo to his staff saying the new language would take effect on Nov. 1.

In the memo, first obtained by KIRO 7, a television station in Seattle, Morgan said the state stopped using the word “inmate” in the early 2000s and that the word “offender” now has “a negative connotation and significantly impacts a broad group of people and communities.”

“Times change, and so does our language,” Morgan said.