By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
No major service changes are expected at Medical Lake's recycling center after this weekend ,despite the switch from Pine Lodge's female offender crews to male crews from Airway Heights Corrections Center.
Pine Lodge women have sorted and baled recyclable goods at the city's drop center for more than five years but will cease doing so tomorrow because of the prison's impending closure at the end of the month.
AHCC inmate crews already took over Eastern State Hospital groundskeeping duties from Pine Lodge following a unit closure at the women's prison in July of last year.
AHCC will assume operations at the Medical Lake recycle center Monday, May 17 as part of an agreement with the city allowing for a crew of up to nine offenders to perform site duties at a rate of $1 per hour per each offender, plus a 12 percent maintenance fee on total offender wages. The contract expires Sept. 30, 2011 and lists the projected number of work hours at 14,214 per year.
Sgt. Ray Greenwalt, who heads up the AHCC work crews, said a former Pine Lodge officer with experience at the Medical Lake recycling center will initially oversee the operation to assess the workload and see if the process can be streamlined. AHCC may also be able to draw from more than seven years experience operating the much larger Cheney Recycling Center, which processes about 700 tons of recyclables per year.
Since the beginning of this year Medical Lake has been seeking alternatives to keep their recycling center running in the event of a Pine Lodge closure. In January Medical Lake Mayor John Higgins said he was considering use of the center as a high school vocational program, hiring a private party, or even shutting the operation down.
At the time Higgins was hesitant to bring male offenders to the center after bad past experiences with Pine Lodge's male crews before the prison transitioned to an all-female facility in 2004. “The Pine Lodge guys did it back when it was co-ed and it was always kind of a hassle, unfortunately,” he said, adding that male offenders from that facility were known to verbally harass residents and sometimes used the center as an avenue for contraband from friends on the outside.
But Greenwalt said the AHCC program has a “zero-tolerance” for misbehavior of any kind. “The first report I hear, they'll be pulled from the crew,” he said. “The offenders know it's a privilege to be out there.”
Greenwalt said he's seen no problems arise in the two and a half years he's been with the program, which has been running for more than 15 years. He called the crews a “great tool for reentry” that gives offenders opportunities to learn how to transition from doing time to becoming contributing citizens.
AHCC administrative program manager Risa Klemme concurred.
“All the men on these work crews, they'll be getting out some day,” she said. “This offers good practice for them to work like they have a job in the community, providing for their families or themselves. It teaches them job skills and pro-social skills, skills that pay off when they reenter society.”
Nine teams of up to nine minimum-custody offenders from AHCC are transported to job sites around Spokane County on any given day, from the Salvation Army warehouse in Spokane to the Eastern State Hospital food services division. Greenwalt said prison crews work on regular job assignments as well as on one-time assists, such as helping the county clean up debris after recent windstorms or preparing cemeteries for upcoming Memorial Day events.
Specially trained officers are responsible for guaranteeing the security of both inmates and the community, but Greenwalt said they also serve as management “role models” for offenders. “How we treat them, with respect and fairness on the job, can help ease their flow back into the community someday,” he said.
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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