YAKIMA – Several communities in Eastern Washington’s farm belt made headlines last year when they considered or adopted ordinances to outlaw gang membership in response to escalating crime, ranging from graffiti to murder.

Now, the gang problem is going before state lawmakers, who will consider sweeping legislation aimed at steering young people away from joining gangs and combating gang violence.

The bill stems from recommendations by a bipartisan task force that studied the statewide issue last year, but its passage isn’t guaranteed. Some have raised concerns that the proposals could violate civil liberties, such as free speech, while others contend a gang crackdown is long overdue.

The measure has its first public hearing Monday before the House Committee on Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness.

Support for the bill isn’t limited to east of the Cascades. In 2005, Rebecca Lambert’s son and three of his friends were stripped naked, beaten and robbed by gang members at a Spanaway park. Her son, Clifton Nelson, was shot in the back three times when he tried to flee.

“It set the community in shock because my son wasn’t the gang member. He was just an 18-year-old kid doing what all other 18-year-old kids do,” Lambert said. “Somebody was going to die … and it was going to be one of our children.”

Lambert believes the legislation will make a difference, but that it’s only a start.

“It’ll make a difference in the amount of help that police get to curb the issues. It’ll make a difference in the lives of juveniles who are headed down the wrong path,” says Lambert, 41, of the bill. “Ultimately, though, we all have to be a part of the solution.”

Washington is far from the first state examining its gang problem. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 32 other states in recent years have approved legislation to increase penalties for gang-related crime or to enact suppression, intervention and prevention programs. Indiana bars membership in criminal gangs that require members to commit felonies or battery to join. Numerous states have increased sentences for crimes associated with gang activity.

Ed Cohn, executive director of the National Major Gang Task Force in Indianapolis, finds that many communities are finally acknowledging they have gang problems and denial is far less rampant.