County, Judges At Odds Over Juvenile Jail Battle Over Cost Complicates Plan For Regional Facility Near Medical Lake

A squabble between Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris and Superior Court is complicating plans for a regional juvenile jail near Medical Lake.

Martin Hall is expected to open by the spring of 1997 in a renovated building on the Eastern State Hospital campus.

But opposition threatens Spokane County’s partnership with eight rural Eastern Washington counties in a consortium to pay for the jail.

Superior Court judges and Tom Davis, director of Spokane County juvenile court services, see Martin Hall as a boondoggle.

While they concede the detention center is desperately needed by the rural counties, which have no alternative, they prefer a cheaper expansion of Spokane County’s existing juvenile jail.

Martin Hall supporters, including Harris, accuse opponents of fudging cost estimates to turn the public against Spokane County’s participation. The judges and Davis, proponents say, are more interested in protecting their turf than addressing the area’s juvenile crime problem.

The nine-county consortium would govern Martin Hall, but a private firm would bid to manage it. Spokane County tentatively has committed to five beds. Twenty-one beds would be split among Stevens, Pend Oreille, Ferry, Lincoln, Adams, Whitman, Asotin and Douglas counties.

The consortium would try to sell the other 30 beds later.

“We’re committed to Martin Hall,” Harris says of Spokane County. “Government just can’t build it as well as free enterprise.”

But Harris and Commissioner Steve Hasson, who also supports Martin Hall, need the judges to sign away their statutory authority over juvenile detention to allow them in the consortium. Commissioner John Roskelley, new to the board, is still investigating Martin Hall’s costs.

“This was not designed to be obstructionist,” Judge Robert Austin says of opposition. “We can’t sign off on a pig in a poke.”

The judges note that Spokane County is committed to paying 18.5 percent of Martin Hall’s costs, while it gets only one in nine votes on the consortium. Martin Hall’s real costs are unknown at this point, judges say, while the estimates appear low. They’re also worried about the 100-year commitment stated in the consortium agreement.

Instead of Martin Hall, the judges favor Davis’ proposal to add two 12-bed wings to the existing 65-bed juvenile jail on Mallon Avenue for $1 million.

Renovation costs of Martin Hall would cost $2.5 million to $3 million, backers say.

“I can do it even cheaper than Martin Hall,” Davis says. “This is simply signing a blank check.”

The daily costs to run Spokane County’s juvenile jail is $102 per bed. But Davis says he can operate the new beds for $50 a day each because the infrastructure, such as the control room and medical facility, already are in place.

Martin Hall supporters say their costs would drop as beds fill. At full capacity, Spokane County and the others would pay $67 a day per bed.

Dave Baker, a Spokane financial adviser who has volunteered 200 hours on Martin Hall, accuses Davis of scuttling the project because he would not have a say in running it.

Baker also doubts Davis’ figures.

“He (Davis) wants to build an empire because his retirement is based on his compensation, and his compensation is based on his responsibility,” says Baker, who got interested in juvenile justice after his son stole his American Express card and wasn’t punished by the courts.

Davis counters that his only motive is to save taxpayers from a financial nightmare.

Officials from the outlying counties are staying out of the Spokane County dispute but say Eastern Washington’s largest county is needed to defer costs.

Regardless, though, Martin Hall must be built, the officials say.

Spokane County no longer has the beds to rent to the rural counties, which are forced to release their offenders or drive them to other jails as far away as the coast.

“They (juveniles) are thumbing their noses at us and have for a long time,” says Allan Mack, vice chairman of the consortium and a Stevens County commissioner.

“The kids are there,” says Jim Potts, consortium chairman and a Whitman County commissioner. “We just don’t have the money or the space.”

Martin Hall would change all that.

Greg Rolstad, a juvenile parole counselor in three northeastern counties, says Martin Hall is the region’s only affordable alternative for holding juveniles accountable.

“I think what we’ll have when we’re done is a model for the state,” he says. “The need is palpable and it’s now. It’s too bad that self-serving interests are taking on more importance than the juveniles.”

Spokane County’s judges have sought a state attorney general opinion on whether they can even relinquish control of Martin Hall.

In the meantime, the judges want project backers to sit down with them and show them their cost analyses. Then, Austin says, the problem might be resolved.

Judge James Murphy notes, however, that ultimately the judiciary and not the executive branch is liable for dealing with criminals.

“We’re responsible for the kids, for the quality of justice that occurs,” he says. “To turn that over to the county commissioners I don’t think is in the best interest of justice in this county.”

, DataTimes