Costly facility for 1 high-risk sex offender

Twenty-five surveillance cameras, 17 state employees, 12-foot security walls and a $1.6 million annual budget — all for one high-risk sex offender.

That is the reality for Washington's new six-bed halfway house for "sexually violent predators" in Seattle's Sodo district, which is preparing to open its 1,800-pound magnetic-locked doors next week for a single resident.

The Department of Social and Health Services declined to identify the man.

Whoever it is, he will have finished at least five years of sex-offender treatment, and will be under 24-hour watch and GPS surveillance as he attempts to find work, therapy and — if he chooses — to occasionally pursue recreational activities such as fishing.

The halfway house is the next step in Washington's costly, 14-year-old effort to protect the public from sexual predators.

The treatment program, based on McNeil Island, holds and treats 227 Level III sex offenders deemed too dangerous for release even after they finished their prison terms.

In 1999, federal Judge William Dwyer ordered DSHS to build an off-island halfway house, as a means to reintegrate residents to society. Without such a release process, the judge warned, the island's center could be considered an unconstitutional extension of prison.

The Department of Social and Health Services hopes to eventually fill the halfway house's other five beds with more graduates from McNeil Island. How quickly the beds fill, DSHS officials said, depends on how fully those graduates comply with treatment.

But by DSHS' most optimistic projections, the annual per-resident cost will be more than $500,000. That expense is in addition to the $1.7 million construction budget.

Henry Richards, superintendent of the McNeil Island treatment center, acknowledged the cost but noted that the state Legislature required exhaustive security to protect the public. Among them: 1-on-1 security, a GPS tracking bracelet, and a Seattle police officer parked outside around the clock.

"This building has got to be secure in all senses — fire safe, earthquake safe, escape safe, and safe from external risks," Richards said.

Despite the precautions, the state's approach remains divisive.

DSHS angered neighborhood groups and Seattle and King County leaders in 2003 when it added, then picked, the Sodo location late in a high profile site-selection process.

And the halfway house's first resident is raising concerns in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

The Special Commitment Center already has a halfway house on McNeil Island, and the prosecutor's office thought the Sodo halfway-house resident should first have to prove himself at the island facility.

The man likely to move later this month did not spend any time at the island's halfway house and has been behind bars continuously for two decades, said David Hackett, who handles sexually violent-predator cases for the prosecutor.

"We see this as throwing a nonswimmer into the deep end of the pool," Hackett said. "If they fail on the island, there's little that can happen. If they fail in downtown Seattle, there is a tremendous public-safety concern."

Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the Senate budget-writing committee, said the cost and the controversy of the Special Commitment Center are growing.

"If you talk about the McNeil Island facility, you feel in your gut that it's unconstitutional," Prentice said. "You can't continue to isolate them forever. Unfortunately, there's too much demagoguery and too many outraged speeches. What we need to do is evaluate the cost and effectiveness of this program."

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com