Draft report outlines state prison cuts

A Yakima prison for elderly and infirm inmates, a juvenile-rehabilitation center in Thurston County and all of the state's intermediate-care facilities for the developmentally disabled have been placed on the chopping block in a state consultant's cost-cutting report.

Faced with a projected budget shortfall, the state Legislature had directed the state's Office of Financial Management to hire a consultant to create a plan to cut 1,580 beds at the state's prisons, 235 beds at juvenile-rehabilitation facilities and 250 beds in Developmental Disabilities Division (DDD) facilities.

The preliminary draft was released on Wednesday. A final report is scheduled to be presented to the governor and lawmakers on Nov. 2.

Officials for the Department of Corrections and the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), which oversees juvenile-rehabilitation facilities and DDD facilities, said it was too early to comment on the proposed closures and cuts.

"We don't even know if what is in this draft is what will be in the final draft," said Corrections' spokeswoman Maria Peterson.

In the report, consultant Christopher Murray & Associates recommended that DSHS close the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration's Maple Lane School in Rochester, Thurston County, and all of the DDD intermediate-care facilities. Closures of the intermediate-care facilities, which provide housing and nursing supervision for residents with mental disabilities or related conditions, would contribute to a 250-bed reduction.

Residents would be moved to smaller state-run facilities or private community care settings, the draft said.

In addition, the consultant is recommending that DDD close, in phases, the Francis Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton and the Rainier School in Buckley, which are homes for developmentally disabled people.

The consultant's report offered two options for cost-cutting for the Department of Corrections. In both, the report recommends the closure of Ahtanum View Corrections Center in Yakima for elderly and infirm inmates. Ahtanum View is the state's smallest prison.

If closed, the elderly inmates would be transferred to a minimum-security unit at Monroe Corrections Complex.

In the first option, the consultant recommended closing the original prison building at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and possibly shuttering three other custody units there.

But the intensive-management unit, the minimum-security unit and administration buildings would remain open.

The penitentiary at Walla Walla employs 1,298 staff members and is the largest of the state's three maximum-security facilities with four separate facilities existing within the institution, each of which house a different custody level of offender.

In that same option, the consultant recommends reducing by 50 percent the number of beds at the Larch Corrections Center in Yacolt, Clark County.

Currently, Yacolt houses about 400 minimum-security offenders and has the equivalent of 110 full-time employees.

Total beds reduced by that option would be 1,653, according to the report.

Under the second option, McNeil Island Corrections Center would be downsized from a maximum-security to a minimum-security facility, Larch Corrections Center would be shuttered and two units at the penitentiary in Walla Walla would be closed.

Peterson said maximum-security prisoners would be moved to another facility if the recommendations were to be adopted.

The draft did not recommend any changes to the Special Commitment Center (SCC), where sexually violent predators are committed for treatment after completing their standard prison sentences.

Total beds reduced in this option would be 1,618, according to the report.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com