Letters Don’t Prove Work-Release Center A Risk Plan For 120 Prisoners On West Third Looks Ok Despite Outcry, Planner Says
Lacking hard evidence to show a proposed work-release center would harm downtown Spokane, the city has no choice but to approve the controversial project, says a city planner.
“If they meet the criteria, it has to be approved,” said Andrew Worlock, the planner in charge of guiding the project through the permitting process. “There’s a lot of testimony that it’s not a good idea.
“But we need to know specifically what impacts it’s going to have” before the city could deny the project, Worlock continued.
In a report sent to the hearing examiner this week, Worlock recommended approval of the 120-bed prisoner center proposed for 46 W. Third.
City Hearing Examiner Greg Smith plans to take testimony on the plan at 9 a.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Second Chance, a Seattle-based non-profit organization, needs a special land-use permit to move state work-release prisoners from West Central’s Cornelius House into downtown’s Blackstone Building at the corner of Third and Browne.
Second Chance provides beds for inmates who are within three to six months of release from prison. While there, they must hold jobs.
“This is what we were hoping for,” said Bruce Kuennen, director of Second Chance in Spokane. “We hope the hearing examiner finds the same thing.”
The proposal has caused an outcry from some downtown residents, business owners and school officials, who say the prisoners pose a threat to the people - especially children - who live, work and go to school there.
One of the neighbors’ biggest concerns is the center will accept convicted child molesters. Under the center’s plan, those former convicts have to admit their crimes and go through sexual offender treatment before being admitted.
“I passionately believe that these people do not belong in our neighborhood,” said Patty Marinos, director of Dynamic Christian Day-Care at 25 W. Fifth. Worlock’s recommendation is “a setback but not a blow.”
In his recommendation, Worlock said the city has been flooded with opposition letters.
But the letters didn’t document “that someone who lives, works, shops or goes to school in the vicinity of a work-release facility is at any greater risk of being a victim of crime than the population as a whole,” Worlock said.
Prisoners must be screened before acceptance. Once there, they undergo frequent blood and alcohol tests. Anyone who violates terms of release can be sent back to prison immediately.
Right now, 61 state and 15 federal prisoners call the Cornelius House home, also run by Second Chance. If the city approves the special permit, the 61 state prisoners will be moved downtown, where there will be room for another 59 state work-release residents as well.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WORK-RELEASE MEETING Tonight’s community meeting on the work-release proposal starts at 6 at the German American Society, 25 W. Third. Free child care is available at Dynamic Christian Academy, 25 W. Fifth.