City, County Needs To Be More Involved

Sun., June 14, 1998

Peggy Kuhr For The Editorial Bo

This is the hidden side of 10 years of get-tough-on-crime laws: More people going into prison means more people coming out.

In Washington state, 13,800 offenders are behind bars today. More than 85,000 are out of prison and under supervision. That number of ex-offenders is twice what it was 10 years ago.

And Spokane is getting back more than its share. For every 100 people convicted in Spokane County, 150 prisoners are deciding that Spokane will be their home when they get out.

Why do more ex-offenders come here? No one’s tabulated a precise answer but the reasons seem clear. They come for some of the same things that attract many of us: affordable housing, available jobs, a chance for a good family life.

They also come because Spokane County has a strong social services network, and because it is far from the urban centers on the West Side where most crime is committed.

Far more difficult are the answers to these questions: What are the civic consequences of having more and more ex-convicts living among us? What does it do to our community? And whose responsibility is it to care?

The growing number of ex-offenders is not directly reflected in crime rates here. But experts - and victims - will tell you the impact is real. One prisoner moving into a community and then committing more crimes causes enormous damage.

And some people think overall crime rates inevitably will go up in Spokane because statistics show that at least 32 percent of ex-convicts offend again.

It’s easy to vilify this growing ex-offender population.

There are terrible stories: For instance, the one about a young woman who met a man in the Hastings store where she worked. He was a former prisoner who wound up attacking her, and killing her sister and friend.

But there are success stories. Men and women get out of prison, get and keep jobs, and create a strong family life. Last year, they contributed more than 48,000 hours of community service to Spokane’s charities and non-profits.

In a special six-day series that starts today, four Spokesman-Review journalists take you into the world of people who leave prison, people who love them and people who monitor a small percentage of them.

The point of this series is awareness: No one is aware of the growing ex-offender population here.

Spokane has a national reputation for its community approach to police work. Now, our city and our county need to work on community-based solutions for ex-offenders: to watch them better, offer them even more services, and educate one another about who really lives next door.

Local journalism is essential.

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