Cuts would transform Monroe prison, cost about 100 jobs

Published 9:57 pm Thursday, December 8, 2011

MONROE — The Washington State Reformatory’s days as a medium-security prison could be numbered.

One unit would be closed and the other three converted to minimum security under a proposal in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s 2012 supplemental budget.

The proposal for the Monroe prison is part of a $14.2 million money-saving package that would allow for the early release of inmates assessed as posing a low to moderate risk of reoffending. Also, a minimum security prison at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla would be closed.

“It’s not something we would support in good financial times but it reduces spending with the least impact to public safety,” state Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said. “This is something we would never propose in good financial times.”

Medium-security inmates from Monroe would be transferred to newer prisons.

Older prisons cost the most to maintain and operate, and it’s common practice to convert them into lower-level custody units, said state prisons director Dan Pacholke. Newer prisons take fewer officers and can rely more on video surveillance.

If the department moved forward with the change, it would take around six months to close one unit and convert three others, Pacholke said. It is estimated that $9 million might be saved and “in the neighborhood” of 100 people might lose their jobs, he said.

The Monroe Correctional Complex is the state’s largest, with five prisons on 340 acres. It houses roughly 2,500 of the state’s 16,000 inmates.

Several changes, including how inmates are assigned to the reformatory, have been put in place since correctional officer Jayme Biendl was killed in the prison chapel in January. Since then, the overall reformatory population has dropped from around 750 to 630. The number of inmates with life sentences also has dipped, from 150 to 100. After each of their files was reviewed, many were reassigned to other prisons.

State Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, said he is concerned that the state’s efforts to save money could undercut the safety of correctional officers. He said he doesn’t want to see offenders who should be classified as medium security end up in minimum security settings. The governor’s proposal would let inmates deemed a low-risk to reoffend be released 150 days early.

Pearson said he also worries about cost-cutting proposals that would reduce by several months the amount of time felons are under community supervision after their release.

“I know the realities of balancing a budget,” he said. “At the same time, I think it will have a negative effect.”

The union representing state correctional officers plans to fight the proposal to convert the reformatory to minimum security.

“We are ardently opposed,” said Tracey Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 117.

She called the idea of early release and shorter supervision penny-wise and pound-foolish. She predicted inmates will be unprepared to return to society and end up back in prison.

Losing jobs at the reformatory because minimum-security prisons require less staffing would hit the employees hard, she said.

“My God, these people are just trying to recover from their colleague’s murder,” she said. “It’s incredibly unfair. What a total morale buster.”

Thompson said she hopes lawmakers will let Washington voters decide if they are willing to raise the sales tax before deciding whether to approve any early release program.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.