Plans for new Western Washington men's complex in the works as local women's prison closes doors
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Despite steady resistance on the local and state levels Medical Lake's Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women will close by June, saving the state an estimated $7.2 million this biennium.
Starting last week all 120 Pine Lodge offenders – excluding inmates scheduled for release before May 30 – are being moved in small groups to a new unit at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women near Bremerton, according to Department of Corrections prisons division director Dick Morgan. Opponents of the closure say subtracting Pine Lodge's 168 beds will create future problems for the state and undo any supposed savings.
“The day we close Pine Lodge is the first day of overcrowding in Mission Creek unless you release a lot of people,” Ninth District Rep. Joe Schmick (R-Colfax) said.
DOC figures show average daily populations at Mission Creek and Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor have hovered at or above maximum capacity for some time. Daily populations at WCCW commonly reach 50 over the prison's operational capacity of 742. Mission Creek's daily population has lingered just under capacity at around 180 offenders, but can now hold up to 296 with the recent addition of a 116-bed unit, the facility's second new unit since 2009.
Caseload forecasts show the current minimum-security capacity for female offenders will be sufficient for four years, after which numbers slowly begin to climb. Morgan said until then Mission Creek's expanded facilities will provide enough minimum-security female bed space and contends that, even with incoming Pine Lodge offenders, populations will be kept under capacity because of discharges and work release transfers.
The DOC has not yet examined what will be done to accommodate more female offenders when numbers begin to escalate but officials said earlier plans to build a new 300-bed minimum-security women's prison on the west side of the state, a project first listed in a 2008 10-year capital improvements plan, were scrapped when new caseload forecasts showed a decrease in needed female beds.
This is the same rationale used to explain a proposed expenditure list issued by the DOC in 2008 that shows funding for Pine Lodge halved for 2009 and eliminated by 2010. Morgan said a Pine Lodge closure wasn't actually on the table until about a year ago, when the idea was discussed as a cost saving measure. Instead, the prison was cut from 359 to 187 beds in June of 2009.
“A lot of what we do at any point in time is driven by forecast dimension,” DOC capital programs manger David Jansen said. “We get a forecast every six months and whenever you see things in the budget it's chasing those forecasts.”
These fluctuating estimates are among reasons DOC officials are hesitant to say too much about plans for a new Western Washington men's complex, a project that received $2.6 million for siting and pre-design work in this year's budget. A DOC spokesperson said while no specifics are available at this time, the facility will accommodate offenders displaced by cuts to McNeil Island Corrections Center and allow future capacity space for males.
Meanwhile, some continue to question the decision-making process behind DOC changes.
Sen. Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) called it “odd” that after a $500,000 study was commissioned last year to determine which public facilities closures could save the state the most money, many of the findings were disregarded, including that Pine Lodge should remain open. “This is probably the most political (decision) I think I've ever seen,” he said of the prison's closure.
Study consultants determined it would be “necessary to open additional minimum-security beds for women in the near future.” They recommended that instead of reopening beds at Pine Lodge, a nearly completed unit at Mission Creek would be “staff efficient, safer and need no capital improvements for many years.”
But several capital projects were already under discussion at Mission Creek, including a $1.9 million visiting area expansion – included in this year's budget – as well as future requests for a $1.8 million food service expansion, $1.2 million perimeter lighting project and, in 2015-17, a $2.4 million correctional industry program. Jansen said unlike preservation capital projects that keep a facility operating as is, projects like these are not essential and aren't guaranteed funding.
Others question why the consultant team visited Pine Lodge but did not visit Mission Creek in the course of their study. Governor's Office spokesman Glenn Kuper said the team chose for themselves which facilities to visit and that, since “the decision of which facilities to close was based primarily on facts,” a visit to each was not deemed necessary.
Opponents continue to argue that closing the only women's prison in the east side of the state, recognized as one of the state's most efficient, in favor of a much smaller west side facility doesn't make fiscal sense and is suggestive of backroom politics.
“A Senate staff member summed it up to me; they said by overcrowding Mission Creek you can get your budget numbers down, that is until you lose your first lawsuit,” Schoesler said. “I guarantee you that by next biennium we will be doing design for another expansion of Mission Creek.”
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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