Transfer Plan Worries Inmates Up To 200 Inmates Could Move To Ease Airways Heights Crowding

Washington officials say they’d like to transfer up to 200 inmates to Colorado within three months to ease crowded prison conditions.

The transfer plan worries some Airway Heights inmates who say an out-of-state transfer penalizes them for their good behavior.

“It’s unfortunate that the way it’s proposed, people who’ve kept out of trouble are the first ones on the transfer list,” said Airway Heights Corrections Center inmate Calvin Malone.

Malone, one of 160 prisoners at Airway Heights Correctional Center who have been screened for possible transfer, said inmates would lose several advantages if they were moved out of state.

The transfer would hurt inmates who have landed good jobs in prison and those who receive regular visits from family members, Malone and other prisoners say.

Another Airway Heights inmate, Edward King, said several inmates have discussed violating prison rules in an attempt to avoid being transferred.

State officials say they must negotiate a contract with a private prison company in Colorado before any transfers can take place.

“This is not yet a certainty,” said James Thatcher, director of treatment and assessment for the Corrections Department.

“But we’re seriously stretched. We’ve filled up the bed space, and there’s no relief in sight until the year 2000,” Thatcher said.

Thatcher said any transfer would start with 150 to 200 inmates, possibly by early February.

Most would come from Airway Heights and the McNeill Island Corrections Center.

Transfers would only include inmates who have four or more years left on their sentence and who have avoided serious disciplinary problems.

That could include inmates like Malone, who converted to Buddhism at Airway Heights after being convicted of child rape in Snohomish County.

Malone said in a phone interview he worries a transfer means he’d lose a shrine, a meditation cushion and other items he needs to practice his religion. It took him three years to convince officials that he deserved them in his cell, he said.

Thatcher said the state’s goal is “to make this as nondisruptive as possible to inmates and to the prison system.”

He said the initial screening was just that - a first step. A second screening will remove inmates who have good jobs, who are unhealthy, who benefit from treatment programs or are in school programs.

Among those who would not be transferred are inmates hired to work for private companies that have set up shop inside the prisons.

Some Airway Heights inmates work for a company producing climbing tools called carabiners, and others work for a private upholstery firm.

But prisoners assigned ordinary custodial or shop jobs inside the prison likely would be eligible to leave, Thatcher said.

Thatcher also insisted that those transferred would be returned to Washington within two years. “This is viewed as a temporary solution. It’s not permanent,” he said.

If the initial transfer of 200 inmates goes smoothly, the state could send another 400 prisoners to Colorado, he said.

The state could return those inmates to Washington in early 2000, Thatcher said.

That’s when the Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Aberdeen is expected to open with 1,900 beds.

State prisons hold more than 13,000 inmates - about 400 more than they were designed to house.

The state should expect a net gain of 600 more inmates during 1999, Thatcher said.

At Airway Heights, prison managers have stuffed an extra 36 inmates into housing units by doubling up beds in cells originally meant for handicapped prisoners.

“Other states have had to resort to this option. We’ve been fortunate in avoiding it this long,” Thatcher said.

If the transfer occurs, the first inmates would move to a private prison about 35 miles from Pueblo, Colo. It’s one of three medium-security prisons run by Corrections Corp. of America.

That prison has about 200 beds available, Thatcher said.

Negotiations are primarily focused on what services Washington inmates will get for whatever it costs to house them in Colorado.

It costs $60-$65 per day to keep an inmate inside Washington’s medium- or maximum-security prisons.

Thatcher said he’s hoping to arrange a fee with Corrections Corp. of America that is near or lower than that figure.

Included in the discussions is whether Washington inmates such as Malone can bring personal items with them to Colorado.

“The contract will try to cover the key areas: level of medical care, what kinds of program options inmates will have, the whole array of services provided,” he said.

Thatcher suggested it wouldn’t be smart for state inmates to break prison rules to avoid a transfer.

“Offenders would lose any good time they’ve already earned. If they misbehave, they’ll be dealt with. They stand to lose privileges of taking educational programs or keeping a job by misbehaving,” he said.

If inmates are transferred, they’ll likely not get a fast ticket home if they break rules once they’re in Colorado, he said.

Following the initial screening at Airway Heights, state officials received dozens of calls from family members of potentially affected inmates.

“As you’d guess, the reaction among inmates here was alarm,” said Cly Evans, an Airway Heights spokesman.

Several inmates have filed legal documents arguing that the state has no authority to transfer them. Others, said Evans, are saying they need to remain inside Airway Heights pending appeals of their prison terms.

Don Westerman, Spokane County public defender, said the inmates have no constitutional basis to argue they can’t be moved by the state.

“And if you talked to the general public, you’d find that few people would sympathize with the prisoners. Most people would say, `That’s just too bad for them.”’