MONROE — When Bernie Warner worked for Washington state’s Department of Corrections in the 1990s, he w
as in charge of finding locations for three new prisons.
He left 15 years ago for a job in California. When he returned three months ago to lead Washington’s prison system, he found the corrections department closing its third prison in a year.
In these times of multibillion-dollar state budget cuts, the state agency has reduced spending by more than $270 million since 2008.
For all the financial uncertainty, Warner said he believes the Monroe Correctional Complex will continue to play an important role for the state. The state’s largest prison complex houses roughly 2,500 of the state’s 16,000 inmates. Monroe is actually five separate prisons on a 340-acre grounds housing minimum to maximum security prisoners.
With the closing of McNeil Island Correctional Complex, Monroe will be the only state prison in the central Puget Sound area, which is where most of the state’s population is concentrated, and the area that produces much of the state’s prison population. Monroe’s central location, proximity to I-5 and short distance to Seattle hospitals are assets, prison officials said.
In coming decades, the state could begin replacing the reformatory’s long, old-fashioned tiers of cells stacked on top of each other with pod-style units that require fewer correctional officers.
There are no formal plans, but the state always is looking for safe ways to save money, Monroe Correctional Complex Superintendent Scott Frakes said.
It would be similar to work that has been done at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, Warner said.
“Newer prisons simply cost much less to operate because they take fewer officers and can rely more on video surveillance cameras,” Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis said.
Over time, Monroe also will look for ways to consolidate its perimeter and number of access points to its prison complex, Frakes said.
In efforts to save money in the shorter term, most staff members at Monroe can expect to continue taking off an unpaid day each month through June. During the one-day lock downs, inmates remain in their cells all day except during meals.
“Hopefully, we don’t have to continue the modified lockdowns that are in place the next six months,” Warner said.
There are several other cost-saving measures underway.
The Department of Corrections expects to save $22,000 each year by purchasing shorter socks for offenders. It expects to save $220,000 each year by reducing the number of trash can liners it purchases by 40 percent. The agency continues to incarcerate more than 16,000 offenders in prisons and supervises more than 19,000 offenders in communities.
There aren’t more cuts to be made, Warner said.
“We just can’t cinch it down any tighter,” he said.
The state prison director doesn’t believe Washington will need to consider early release for prisoners as a money-saving option. Washington is among the 10 states with the lowest rates of prison incarceration, in part because of flexible drug laws aimed at rehabilitation, Warner said.
Despite the cuts, Warner said there are encouraging signs. Reports of violent incidents in the state’s prisons have dropped during the past two years, Warner said. He credited new and innovative strategies.
Reporter Alejandro Dominguez contributed to this story. Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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