Construction Of Juvenile Detention Center Begins

A consortium of nine Eastern Washington counties planned to break ground today for the Martin Hall regional juvenile detention center.

The project to convert an old mental hospital dormitory at Medical Lake into a 52-bed lockup is expected to be completed by October at a cost of $5.5 million.

Construction can’t be completed soon enough to suit the consortium members. Most of the counties are turning loose all but their most violent juvenile criminals because they have no detention center of their own and other centers are usually full.

The counties will split the construction costs according to the number of beds they agreed to purchase. Members signed up for 28 beds, and hope to rent out the rest.

If only 28 beds are used, the estimated daily operating cost per inmate is $115 per day. But the Martin Hall estimate drops to $74 a day if all 52 beds are filled.

Spokane County has agreed to buy five beds as a consortium member.

Martin Hall directors have offered a five-year contract to Spokane County for 15 more beds, which would drive down the overall operating costs. The offer is in competition with a proposal by the county’s Juvenile Court staff to add 24 beds to its own juvenile jail for $1 million.

Consortium directors had expected to pay about $1.6 million more for the Martin Hall project. But a construction bid came in about $480,000 below the architects’ estimate, and the group saved $1.1 million by rejecting a loan offered by the state Legislature.

Stevens County, the largest participant in the consortium with seven beds, sold 20-year bonds for the project last month after Spokane County declined to extend its credit.

Other counties in the group are Whitman, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Ferry, Adams, Asotin and Douglas.

Directors say they are committed to “no-nonsense incarceration.” But they point out that the new juvenile center will be the only one in the state designed to meet an American Correctional Association standard that calls for no more than 20 percent of cells to be double-bunked.

Martin Hall will offer a full school program, medical care and “required boot camp-style” exercise, a spokesman said.

, DataTimes