West Siders Tie Up Prison Bill Corrections Panel Refuses To Hear Spokane Measure

A proposal to send newly released prisoners back to where they first were convicted has hit a snag as potentially lethal as razor wire.

Two Seattle area lawmakers who oversee bills affecting prisons are refusing to conduct a hearing on the measure, which may effectively kill it for the year.

The bill essentially would require the state Department of Corrections to buy bus tickets and escort newly released prisoners to the station, where they would be sent back to the county in which they had been convicted.

The measure was filed in response to a June 1998 Spokesman-Review series that revealed that the number of prison inmates released in Spokane County had jumped 84 percent from 1992 to 1997. Many had been convicted in other counties but moved to Spokane after their release.

But Rep. Ida Ballasoites, R-Mercer Island, House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee co-chairwoman, said Tuesday that shipping released inmates across the state would be “bad public policy.”

“They have to go somewhere,” said Ballasoites, a Republican. “I empathize that it has impacted Spokane, but I can hear King and Pierce counties saying, `Why should we send them back here?”’

Her co-chairman, Rep. Al O’Brien, D-Mountlake, said it would not be cost-effective.

While the bill could be revived if the two leaders change their minds or if sponsors convince House leaders to bypass the committee, O’Brien said those chances are “slim and none.”

Sponsored by Spokane Republicans Lynn Schindler and Larry Sheahan, the bill had garnered support from seven other Spokane-area lawmakers and two from Walla Walla. Schindler said she was dismayed by the co-chairs’ actions.

“Talk about not fair,” she said. “I understand Rep. Ballasoites’ misgivings, but I empathize better than anyone because we’ve become the dumping ground. I feel very sorry for Spokane.”

Democratic Spokane Rep. Jeff Gombosky said he was disappointed the co-chairs wouldn’t even give the bill a hearing.

“Even if they didn’t like it in its current form, we don’t even get a chance to talk about the bigger problem of ex-inmates moving to Spokane,” he said. “And we have hearings on all kinds of different things all the time.”

While the measure was designed to slow the flood of ex-convicts who settle down in the community where they were incarcerated, state corrections officials contend the bill, as drafted, would have been ineffective.

“It seems like a dramatic-sounding gesture,” said Cly Evans, a program manager with Airway Heights Correctional Facility. “But the exceptions they’ve written into this would probably cause the impact to be indiscernible.”

The measure allowed the state to exempt released prisoners who had family or had found employment in the county where they were incarcerated. Offenders also could remain if they needed access to specialized treatment programs, or if the offender was considered a threat to his or her victims.

Of the 216 prisoners released to Spokane County in calendar year 1998, slightly more than half were convicted here, said Victoria Roberts, a community protections administrator with the Department of Corrections. All but 26 of the others would have qualified for one of the exemptions.

Even those who were sent home would be free to reside anywhere they chose, even if it meant buying a ticket back to the county where they served their time.

“I can understand their intent,” Roberts said. “But part of the problem is people go where the resources are.”

As Eastern Washington’s economic hub, Spokane has more job opportunities for low-skilled workers than many rural counties, and is a cheaper place to live than Western Washington. The county also has 10 licensed sex offender treatment counselors, while all the adjacent counties combined have only three.

Still, Schindler said her proposal would have been a start.

“If it affects only 26 people, that’s still 26 more that wouldn’t be in Spokane,” Schindler said.

Sheahan, who will take over Eugene Prince’s state Senate seat later this week, said he may file a companion bill in the Senate - minus the exemptions. Getting it through that chamber would be “a tough row to hoe.”

Western Washington “is where all the votes are,” he said.

Ballasoites said she wasn’t sure how the bill could be changed to satisfy her.

“I just really don’t care for it,” she said.