OLYMPIA — Converting former juvenile offender facility Maple Lane into a pre-incarceration reception center would alleviate Washington prison crowding in a cost-effective way, Department of Corrections Secretary Bernie Warner said on Thursday.
Warner, speaking to the Capital Budget Committee, testified that with a dwindling budget and a growing inmate population, the DOC is on the verge of a capacity emergency. The DOC endorses the Maple Lane plan — one of three set forth by an independent report released in October — as the state's best option, Warner said.
It would require $6 million during the 2013-2015 biennium.
Under the plan, the Grand Mound facility would become the starting point for all male offenders, a place where new inmates are fingerprinted, photographed and assessed for physical and mental health. The short-term facility could house up to 1,280 offenders, according to the Criminal Justice Planning Services report.
The Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, which currently provides 80 reception center beds, would be repurposed to its original use: long-term confinement.
Building at Maple Lane would cost the state $231.4 million over the next 10 years, according to the report. The other two plans outlined in the report — expanding the Shelton reception center into an existing building and constructing a new prison; or building a new Shelton reception center and building a new prison — would cost the state $249.1 million and $311.7 million respectively.
Warner, on Thursday, urged the Capital Budget Committee to consider the plan.
According to the DOC secretary, on any given day there are approximately 100 empty beds throughout Washington's 12-facility, 16,000-inmate state prison system, and at the Shelton reception center, it is not uncommon for inmates to have to sleep on the floor.
"Our prison system really never has been tighter in our history or more restricted in terms of our available capacity," Warner said. "…A solution should not be to just crowd our facilities — that would not be a safe environment for our staff."
Senior Budget Assistant for the Office of Financial Management Carole Holland, who also testified on Thursday, said that by 2022, an additional 1,200 beds will be needed for male offenders.
To address the shortfall, the Legislature must take action — and soon, Holland said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire currently is working on her outgoing capital budget proposal. It will be released in mid-December.
In the meantime, Maple Lane will remain empty but in good condition, with maintenance provided by supervised offender work crews from Cedar Creek correctional facilities. The Grand Mound facility operated as a juvenile detention center from 1914 until December 2011, when the population was transferred to the Green Hill School.
