Whenever any inmate of a correctional institution shall hold, or participate in holding, any person as a hostage, by force or violence, or the threat thereof, or shall prevent, or participate in preventing an officer of such institution from carrying out his or her duties, by force or violence, or the threat thereof, he or she shall be guilty of a class B felony and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment in a state correctional institution for not less than one year nor more than ten years.
RCW 9.94.030
Holding person hostage—Interference with officer's duties.
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case 28 Wash. App. 704 - State v. Bower (1981)
Most recently applied in 12 Wash. App. 2d 588 - State Of Washington v. Alan D. Jenks (March 2020)
2003 c 53 s 54; 1995 c 314 s 3; 1992 c 7 s 20; 1957 c 112 s 1; 1955 c 241 s 3.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.