Vail responds to letter on the decision to close Pine Lodge
In response to the letter to the editor, “Decision to close Pine Lodge prison leaves many questions,” (April 22) I feel compelled to respond.
It is with great sadness that we see Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women close at the end of this month. It was a great facility, with great staff that ran a very effective program. Our decision to recommend closure of Pine Lodge to the Legislature was never based on the quality of the program or the people who ran it.
Truth is, during the past year, wherever we have talked about closing a facility; we have quickly heard the local community speak up in support of “their prison.” That response has been gratifying as it clearly showed DOC prisons are good neighbors that serve their local communities well.
The reason we decided to close Pine Lodge was very simple—it was about the money.
We have been running three prisons for women in this state, the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) in Gig Harbor, the Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Belfair and the Pine Lodge facility in Medical Lake. WCCW is our major facility for women, housing all custody levels and providing specialized medical and mental health programs. It was not an option to close WCCW.
That left us with a choice of which minimum facility for women to close—Pine Lodge or Mission Creek. Keeping them both open was not a wise fiscal choice. Running two small facilities will drive unnecessary administrative costs for the state at a time when we clearly can't afford it.
When you look at where women who go to prison in this state come from, it is very clear they come from Western Washington. It is true that closing Pine Lodge means that some women will see their children less frequently. But, the entire time we had Pine Lodge open, the same thing was happening in reverse. Women who had children in Western Washington were sent further away from them while they did their time at Pine Lodge. Closing Pine Lodge became the choice that kept the most women closer to their kids.
We recommended this course of action in the governor's budget proposal and it was supported in the final budget passed by the Legislature. It was one of many tough decisions this Legislature was forced to confront.
The projections for the future female prison population have been leveling off, plus the Family Offender Sentencing Alternative, passed in this last legislative session, is projected to reduce the female population by another 100.
I wish we were not in this position. I wish no one's job at Pine Lodge was disrupted and that no incarcerated mother had to be a long way from her kids while she is in prison. But, the fiscal crisis we face in this state has very real impacts for state employees, for those who receive state services and for local communities. This is only one of many of them.
Eldon Vail
Secretary,
Department of Corrections
“Vietnam era” vets shouldn't cast themselves as war vets
Serving one's country in the military is an honorable thing to do. The overall percentage of those who actually enlist and serve is quite small compared to the overall potential pool of applicants. I know that from being an active Army recruiter for many years, both in the Boston Recruiting Command and here in the Spokane area until retiring in 2000.
Lately, there have been a couple of cases where prominent politicians and others have been caught trying to imply they were Vietnam War veterans knowing full well that they were “Vietnam era” veterans; and wouldn't know the difference between Marble Mountain at Da-Nang, or the local bath and massage house in Bangkok on R&R (or S&L as the Marines termed it. But that's another story and this is a family newspaper).
Many of the benefits accorded to Vietnam War veterans were also given to Vietnam era veterans and that is fair in that they served honorably for their period of service. But to claim that some of these Vietnam era veterans are true “Vietnam War” veterans is misleading and deceitful.
It is, in fact, a federal crime under the Stolen Valor Act if one is caught wearing either the Vietnamese Campaign Ribbon (with clasp), or the Vietnamese Service Medal – or any other award – on special occasions such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day. They are dead wrong and they know it!
The clasp device on the Vietnamese Campaign Medal is silver in color with a number “60” on it, followed by a dash with no ending date. It is the only military award in the entire medal nomenclature chart that has no ending date. Perhaps for a reason. Because for many of us, the war has never really ended – despite what was signed in 1975.
The last thing we need is for some to imply they fought in Vietnam, when in reality they were assigned to serve state side or elsewhere. There are enough phonies out there, as a prominent politician found out recently back east. He stated he had “misspoken” as to his service time. Why not just come clean and say you lied – end of discussion! Who in the hell do they think they are kidding?
I may be in my 60's – just like the clasp device – but I still have all my marbles, even after surviving S&D operations around Marble Mountain so long ago.
Graeme Webster
Cheney
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