MONROE — Every month, business people in Monroe have lunch together to network and discuss issues that affect their businesses. They usually meet at a church where they sit on comfortable chairs and eat decent meals.
This month, they went beyond their comfort zone. They met on Tuesday behind the locked doors at the Monroe Correctional Complex. About 90 people attended the luncheon hosted by the Monroe Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber members and guests passed through the prison gates. They handed over to prison guards their cell phones, driver’s licenses and car keys. Then they headed for minimum security unit’s cafeteria.
“Good afternoon. Welcome to the chamber’s great adventure,” Executive Director Neil Watkins began. “We wanted to do something different.”
The crowd applauded. People sat on concrete picnic tables and ate lunch, prepared by prison staff, using plastic sporks, spoons with forklike tines. No knives or forks were provided.
The chamber held the luncheon for the first time at the prison complex, Watkins said. Many people in town work for the prison complex. What happens behind the bars may not be visible, but it affects the community, he said.
“This is an integral part of the community. Business people need to see and understand it,” he said.
Prison officials gave a friendly presentation about the state’s largest prison complex, where more than 1,100 employees work and about 2,500 inmates live. Most inmates will be released eventually. The prison complex aims to get them training and skills so they won’t return to prison.
More than 900 people in the community volunteer in various activities to help inmates interact with people outside the prison complex. Inmates get job training and use educational programs.
For many chamber members, this was their first tour inside the prison complex. They had a bread bowl of clam chowder, green salad with dressing and chocolate cake topped with a cherry and whipped cream.
After the lunch, visitors were divided into groups to tour different parts of the prison complex: the sex offenders’ unit, the special offender unit for inmates with mental issues and the Washington State Reformatory for other inmates.
Howard Anderson, associate superintendent of the prison complex, led the tour.
He talked about how the system works and how it sometimes doesn’t work. For instance, the Monroe prison became smoke-free a few years ago. That didn’t force the inmates to quit cold turkey, but it did increase the price of contraband cigarettes behind bars. A smuggled pack of cigarettes is now being sold for about $40, he said.
Jesse and Leah Ellis grew up in Monroe, but had never entered the prison complex. The brother and sister own a bicycle shop in town.
“I always wondered what it was like here,” Leah Ellis said.
They were among eight people heading to the reformatory unit.
“The food was actually pretty good. I was kind of surprised,” Jesse Ellis said.
They passed a metal detector and metal doors to enter the unit. As they walked, some inmates noticed the group and looked at the outsiders.
“This place is huge,” said Misti Hlavacek, who works for the chamber.
The group visited an in-house clinic, recreational room, kitchen and cells for inmates. Barbara Orr, an real estate agent, looked into a cell, 7 feet by 12 feet.
“Oh my god!” Orr said. “Is this a normal size?”
Leah Ellis opened her mouth, looking into the same cell.
“It’s much smaller than I thought,” she said. “I’d go crazy if I spent my life there.”
When the group finished the tour, Orr had mixed emotions. Inmates need to serve their time for what they have done. But spending one’s life in a tiny cell seems horrible, she said.
“It’s very, very sad,” she said. “It’s still people.”
Following their tour, everyone got back their cell phones, driver’s licenses and car keys, and headed back to work.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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