Sex Offender Solution May Be Our Problem Five Of 11 Possible Locations For Facility In Spokane County

Five Spokane County neighborhoods are considered among the “most promising” sites statewide for a halfway house for dangerous sex offenders.

Among those five are two Airway Heights parcels on prison land not previously disclosed, a revelation that sparked an immediate protest from city officials.

Also in the running are three previously discussed sites on the Eastern State Hospital campus in Medical Lake - despite a near revolt by citizens and elected officials in that town.

The state Department of Social and Health Services produced the list of 11 potential sites Monday after sifting through dozens of state-owned properties and matching them with guidelines that require a nearby metropolitan area.

A DSHS-organized committee will winnow the 11 locations - all but three in Eastern Washington - to one finalist and two alternates by Dec. 1, department official Tim Brown said.

A double-wide mobile home housing three offenders is scheduled to open by mid-March, and a second batch of three offenders could be put there by mid-May.

“We know we won’t be welcomed,” Brown said.

If Spokane-area neighborhoods are picked, he’s probably right.

“It’s outrageous,” Spokane County Commissioner Kate McCaslin said, referring to the number of local sites on the list. “Spokane County is becoming the dumping ground for the state’s problems.”

The department is under court order to find “less restrictive alternatives” to treat sex offenders who are held on an island treatment center in the Puget Sound after serving prison terms.

The residents were deemed by courts to be too dangerous to be immediately released, and have undergone years of rehabilitative therapy. A federal judge has found the DSHS must treat some residents in a community setting or face hefty fines.

Sites in Walla Walla, Yakima, North Bend and Snohomish counties are also being considered. Eleven other places in Western Washington were rejected for not meeting DSHS criteria.

At mid-day Monday, Airway Heights officials learned that two pieces of Department of Corrections land in their community were being considered.

Airway Heights Police Chief Jim Nettles said he would ask the City Council to oppose the site, which is a few blocks from Sunset Elementary School and adjacent to a growing suburban housing development.

“For them to walk in and say we’re going to put a bunch of sex offenders in your back yard, without giving us a chance to have a say, that’s pretty irresponsible,” Nettles said.

Airway Heights Councilman Larry Haskell, a Spokane County drug crimes prosecutor, predicted residents would be outraged, but questioned what can be done with so little time before a final decision is made.

“If the state says that’s going there, I don’t know how much we can do about it,” Haskell said.

But Medical Lake officials hope they’ve found a way to scuttle two locations being considered there. The city’s comprehensive plan calls for community input and City Council approval before a new public facility can be opened on the Eastern State Hospital campus, city administrator Curt Kelling said.

“Even if we were trying to help, it’d be six months,” Kelling said. “The whole thing would take time, and that’s one thing they don’t have at this point.”

The DSHS is due back in federal court Dec. 5 to show progress toward opening a halfway house.

But a third parcel being considered on the campus, near an abandoned dairy farm, is outside the city limits.

Kelling predicts that is the most likely to be picked. “What’s the easiest way to take the mayor you have hounding you out of the picture? Put it out of his jurisdiction,” he said.

The DSHS’s Brown said he was unsure what would happen if the department got entangled in a zoning debate.

“Even when (DSHS Secretary) Dennis (Braddock) names it, it’s not absolutely done,” Brown said. “We’d still sit down with the local community.”

The number of Spokane County locations on the list is coincidence, Brown said.

“We’ve been looking all over the state,” he said. “We didn’t try to go East Side or West Side. It was a matter of reviewing the property and comparing it to our criteria.”

At a Airway Heights City Council meeting Monday night, council members decided to hold a public forum about the proposed halfway house Nov. 27.

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE DSHS guidelines

The Department of Social and Health Services’ minimum guidelines for locating a sex offender halfway house require:

A response time of less than five minutes to fires, medical emergencies or escapes. Public employees can act as law enforcement.

The house to be outside the “line of sight” of schools, child care centers, parks, bus stops and churches.

Contractors to install and maintain security systems.

Electronic surveillance and bracelets to monitor residents.

At least two staff members on night shifts, and one employee per resident in the day.

The house to be within commuting distance of therapists, education and jobs.