June 3, 2009 in City

Prison to shrink by half

State sending female inmates to West Side facilities

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The Spokesman-Review Inmates walk toward the residence building Tuesday on the campus of the minimum-security Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women in Medical Lake.
(Full-size photo)

OLYMPIA – Citing a smaller population of female prisoners, state corrections officials plan to shutter one of two units at Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women, the only women’s prison east of the Cascades.

The 359-woman prison in Medical Lake will shrink to 187 inmates. The rest will be transferred to West Side facilities.

About 30 of Pine Lodge’s roughly 100 staffers will lose their current jobs, the Department of Corrections said, but officials will try to find new jobs for them in the state prison system.

Prison officials said earlier this year they would close the entire prison and transfer all its inmates to a site near Vancouver, Wash. Closing Pine Lodge would save $14 million over two years, they said at the time. But that plan was shelved in favor of a statewide study – due late this year – to determine which prison to close.

Corrections spokeswoman Maria Peterson said Tuesday the unit closure at Pine Lodge is not a preface to closure of the entire facility.

“The plan right now is to run it at about 200 female offenders,” Peterson said.

The Department of Corrections also is delaying plans to open a 256-bed medium-security block of cells at Connell’s Coyote Ridge prison this month.

“We simply don’t have enough offenders to operate these units at full capacity,” prisons director Dick Morgan said.

The number of prisoners statewide has shrunk over the past two years, and state forecasters say that trend will continue. The number of female prisoners has dropped by 80 over the past two years. Recent changes in the law, including sentencing reforms, are expected to pare the numbers further.

In February, the state closed two units at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and one at a minimum-security camp at Coyote Ridge. A 48-bed unit closed at the state’s McNeil Island prison last fall.

“This is something that’s been happening across the state,” Peterson said.

She said that the number of prisoners at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, near Gig Harbor, has dropped, creating plenty of empty beds there. Considering the many requests from offenders to transfer there for classes or to be closer to family, she said, it made sense to close half of Pine Lodge.

Earlier this year, the proposal to close the prison upset workers there, who said the facility is critical for local jobs and allows Eastern Washington women be close to families. Some of that anger was echoed Tuesday in a call from a Pine Lodge worker, who didn’t give her name.

“I just think it’s a travesty for Eastern Washington,” she said, to be housing most female prisoners on the state’s West Side. “It’s pretty darned hard to cross the Cascades in the winter.”

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Six comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  George Sands on June 03 at 12:57 a.m.

  Look at the numbers. before 1:3.6 after 1:2.5 seems they are actually being MORE inefficient after the move.

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  Ed F on June 03 at 6:45 a.m.

  The entirety of DOC is cruel and inefficient and the lock em up mentality is part of the financial crises we face as Americans.

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  greyhound2 on June 03 at 7:20 a.m.

  Another example of inequality between genders. Men go to jail, women don't.

  Women are 50% of the population and commit as many crimes as the other half. Woman rarely go to jail while men usually do. Jail must be a man thing.

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  George Sands on June 03 at 9:35 a.m.

  To the above posters. I also have long felt the same. However its a matter of how do we change a system that is so frought with corruption? Most of it starts with our loony legistlators like Pam Roach who pass these ridiculous bills. Then it goes to DOC which has carte blanche to inflict whatever punishment they desire on the convicted.

  Thank god there was a budget crisis and the reduction of some of the stupid sentencing. However the shuttering of NEW prisons goes to show the DOC mentality of Locking up more and more of our population for trivial crimes.

  The recent legistator finally pulled their head out after DECADES of petitioning to allow freed offenders to vote. Albeit it was a half assed measure.

  If you had a product that had a 50% failure rate, you would start thinking that your doing something wrong… but not when it comes to recidivism in our offenders. Its ok that 50% or more return to prison. Cant one of the high paid morons in DOC or our state legislator figute out that something is seriously wrong?

  With the recent cuts in our school funding, we had better start saving BILLIONS for the new prisons that will be required because WE failed to provide for an adequate education and health care for our kids. You reap what you sow. #30

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