WA, Colvilles agree on inmate funeral leave

State prison inmates who are members of the Colville Indian tribes may be allowed to return home to visit dying family members or to attend their funerals under a new agreement with Washington state.

The state Department of Corrections allows some inmates escorted leave for medical treatment, deathbed visits or funerals of family members. However, members of the state's American Indian tribes generally have not been accorded similar visits because of concerns that the state has no jurisdiction on reservations.

The state and the Colvilles say the new agreement, signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire earlier this month, is the first of its kind with any of the state's tribes and could serve as a model.

"This is a good solution to a problem that has been especially troubling to me," Colville Business Council member Virgil Seymour said in a statement. "It's so important that our tribal members are able to attend these services, or visit the death bed of a close relative.

"It's also a way for inmates to feel less isolated from the reservation and their tribe, to help them maintain ties with families and friends," he said.

The Corrections Department typically allows furloughs for inmates to visit dying relatives or attend funerals within Washington state, depending on the severity of their crime, behavior while in prison and mental competency, Assistant Secretary Scott Blonien said.

However, there has been inconsistency in whether prison superintendents allow those visits for tribal members who are incarcerated, he said.

"There was a concern about the state losing jurisdiction over one of its offenders if that offender is in Indian country," he said.

The agreement establishes terms for those visits and gives the Colville tribes reasonable expectations on how requests will be dealt with in the future. The department also has been working with the governor's office to notify other tribes about the opportunity for similar agreements, he said.

"It's not like there's been a huge hue and cry that we haven't been doing it, but we needed to ... establish some parameters," Blonien said.

Family members may request the escorted leave on behalf of the inmate. The visits must be no longer than 48 hours, including travel time, and the inmates must be housed in a city or county jail, state facility or other supervised custody.

Local law enforcement agencies also are notified.

The inmate or inmate's family must cover costs of the trip, including mileage, meals, lodging and salary for the escort.

The state also agreed to consider, on a case-by-case basis, allowing escorts for inmates who may not meet its definition of "immediate family member," if the family can show that the inmate was very close to the deceased, said Colville councilman John Stensgar.

The agreement "takes into account the fact that our definition of family is not the same as the state's," he said. "It recognizes and respects our cultural differences."