More than 1,000 prisoners return from out of state

Washington is starting to bring back some of the inmates that it sent to out-of-state prisons because of overcrowding here at home.

The first group of 61 was brought back in late June so they could begin to transition out of the prison system entirely, said Jim Thatcher, superintendent of out-of-state prisons and jails for the state Department of Corrections.

“For these guys who have been out the longest, they get to return first,” Thatcher said.

Washington has been sending inmates out of the state for nearly six years, and many of those returnees have been gone that long. There are 1,076 Washington inmates still incarcerated at four privately run prisons in Minnesota, Arizona and Oklahoma. That’s down from a high of 1,160.

Thatcher said he doesn’t expect to have to send any additional inmates out of state. More will return in early 2009 as the state begins to open 2,150 new prison beds at the Coyote Ridge prison in Eastern Washington. All out-of-state inmates are expected to be back in Washington by the end of 2009, he said.

FAMILIES WELCOME RETURN

That will be welcome news for families of inmates who have been sent out of state. Many of them have complained about the difficulty of visiting their incarcerated relatives, and out-of-state placement sometimes disrupts classes and prison jobs.

Thatcher said the state, with the help of churches in King County, also is setting up video visits that let out-of-state inmates and their families see each other at no cost to inmates or loved ones.

Members of the most recent group of returning inmates have about 12 to 14 months left on their sentences and were brought back so they can prepare for final release. Some will be sent to work-release centers.

He said state officials underestimated the need for more prison beds, making it necessary to send inmates out of state for longer periods than first anticipated.

The shortage of prison beds was further worsened by the surge in “violators,” inmates who were released from prison but were sent back because they violated terms of their release. Most of them are still housed in county jails for 30 to 60 days, but prison officials cleared out space to house 270 such violators at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Snohomish County.

Thatcher said the state won’t need all of those beds because he’s negotiating to rent more beds at the King County Jail and because the state now can send more inmates to drug treatment instead of back to prison.

Those extra beds at Monroe are part of the reason Washington can bring some of its out-of-state inmates back, he said.

INCREMENTAL TRANSFERS

Washington oversees a total of 18,551 inmates in prison. That includes 15,905 who are housed at 15 Washington prisons and 613 who are in one of the state’s 16 work-release centers. The rest are either in out-of-state prisons or in county jail beds that the state is renting. Thatcher said prison officials generally open a new prison one wing at a time as they have enough staff on hand.

“When (the rest of the inmates) do come back, we’ll probably bring a plane-load at a time, roughly 100 at a time,” he said. They will be distributed throughout the Washington prison system, not just at Coyote Ridge, he said.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, the Legislature and prison officials are hoping to avoid building at least one $250 million prison in the future by beefing up offender programs – school, drug treatment, job hunting – that will reduce the number of inmates who commit more crimes and get sent back to prison.

If those programs work, the number of out-of-state inmates will sink to zero, Thatcher said, “and you eliminate the need to build two substantial prisons. Instead of having to build two, you only have to build one.”

Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436

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