Stevens County Demos Target Convicts Party Leaders Hope Issue Will Unite Them, Republicans

Sat., Feb. 27, 1999

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Stevens County Democrats are throwing their support to legislative efforts to keep Spokane from being a dumping ground for ex-convicts from all around the state.

“Spokane is our metropolitan area, and whatever happens in Spokane certainly affects us and could spill over to us,” Gifford resident Lula Schroder said. “We are not so much concerned about what’s happening up here as to what it is doing to Spokane.”

Most Stevens County residents shop in Spokane, Schroder said. “We feel like we are a part of the Spokane area.”

Schroder serves on a special five-member committee the Stevens County Democratic Party appointed to study the issue. The committee will deliver its report at the party’s monthly meeting Monday in Chewelah.

The meeting, open to the public, will start with a no-host dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the Park Avenue Restaurant. The discussion will begin at 7:30.

Chairwoman Carolyn McKern said the party, admittedly an underdog in Stevens County, has been trying to find some common ground with Republicans. The prison-release issue seems to be one that unites Stevens County residents of all political persuasions, McKern said.

Schroder said the county Democrats passed a resolution last month supporting House and Senate bills that would require prisoners, when they are released, to be sent back to the counties where they were convicted. The resolution and a plea for support was sent to key legislators and all Democratic and Republican central committees in the state.

That was before Western Washington lawmakers bottled up the bill in the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee. Now, Schroder said, the Stevens County Democrats are concentrating on a companion bill that is still alive in the Senate and on a new House bill that would appropriate up to $25,000 to study the issue.

“That’s a good start,” Schroder said of the new study bill, sponsored by Spokane Republican Lynn Schindler.

But Schroder said the Democrats would prefer the House to revive the original bill, which was sponsored by Schindler and fellow Spokane Republican Larry Sheahan.

Both bills were prompted by statistics that show an 84 percent increase in the number of state prisoners released to Spokane from 1992 to 1997 as the result of a new prison at nearby Airway Heights. Of 216 ex-convicts released to Spokane County in 1998, only slightly more than half had been convicted in the county.

This sidebar appeared with the story: PARTY MEETING Public invited The party’s monthly meeting is open to the public. It begins Monday in Chewelah with a no-host dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the Park Avenue Restaurant. The discussion will begin at 7:30.

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