‘Make it make sense’: Advocates stunned as WA lawmaker helps slash funds for groups clearing old drug convictions

After being fired from the legal aid group she once led, Rep. Tarra Simmons supported state cuts that crippled similar organizations

By: Moe K. Clark

Outlets: InvestigateWest

Published: November 11, 2025

Words: 1,916

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 2 days ago

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When Camerina Zorrozua learned in April that Washington had slashed its state funding of her Spokane-based legal aid organization, she frantically called state Rep. Tarra Simmons.

“I was so alarmed, and I asked her straight up, ‘What happened?’” said Zorrozua, the legal director and co-founder of The Way to Justice.

Simmons, the first formerly incarcerated lawmaker in Washington, has vowed to fight for other formerly incarcerated people and was the state representative who Zorrozua thought would have …

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