State closing Larch prison

The Larch Corrections Center in Yacolt will be closed Feb. 1, and the state Department of Corrections will cut 299 jobs as it seeks to make $53 million in budget cuts, agency Secretary Eldon Vail said Friday.

The minimum security prison in southwest Washington has 240 inmates, and most will be transferred to the McNeil Island Corrections Center, Vail said. No early releases of inmates are planned, he said.

Friday was the deadline for state agencies to announce how they would deal with spending cuts of 6.3 percent. The Corrections Department also will not fill 118 vacant positions. Major prisons will have one-day lockdowns each month to reduce overtime costs. Drug treatment programs will be reduced in prisons.

“These will not make the community less safe,” Vail said.

Prison employees who are members of the Teamsters Union said Friday they will sue over the cuts.

“Our members work side by side with some of society’s most dangerous criminals,” said Teamsters Local 117 Secretary-Treasurer Tracey A. Thompson. “We will not stand idly by and allow the state to dismantle protections that help keep them safe.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire recently ordered spending cuts of 6.3 percent at all general-fund state agencies. For the Department of Corrections, that meant nearly $53 million between now and June 30.

Vail said they are still $1.4 million short of the required cuts, but can’t reach the goal without increasing risk to staff, inmates and the public. Vail said the agency may ask the Legislature for budget help.