Seattle-area program will pay victim restitution using taxpayer dollars; some criminals to avoid jail time
A new program by a Washington county prosecutor’s office would allow for certain crime victims to be paid restitution directly from a fund established by the agency – and said to be supplied by taxpayers – instead of waiting for the alleged criminals’ cases to play out in court, according to officials and a report. The King County Prosecutor’s Office recently established a program that would include the reimbursement of a certain amount of restitution toward victims of certain kinds of crimes earlier on in the criminal justice process, rather than waiting for the offender to pay up, which, according to County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, could take months if not years, KOMO News reported.