In re the Personal Restraint of Liptrap

*466¶1 The legislature has provided that an inmate who is a sex offender may earn early release credits and transfer into community custody in lieu of early release if the Department of Corrections approves the inmate’s release plan.

Becker, J. —

¶2 The department has adopted a new policy of refusing to consider a plan for transferring an inmate into community custody until a forensic evaluation is completed that indicates whether or not the inmate meets the criteria for referral for civil commitment. As applied to the petitioners, the new policy effectively deprived them of their opportunity to…