YAKIMA, Wash. -- Lawmakers say a proposal to close the Ahtanum View Correction Center will shift, rather than save, state expenses.

Workers, meanwhile, are worried about their livelihoods after a report recommends closing their facility.

"You don't know what might happen. You don't know where you're going to go," Leeann Stelter said Thursday.

"And this isn't just a job," said the 42-year-old counselor who's worked at the facility for more than a decade. "They ingrain it in you that it's about the mission. These people are vulnerable."

Ahtanum, on South 64th Avenue about six miles west of downtown Yakima, is a minimum-security prison providing medical care to most of its 130 elderly inmates.

Closing the prison -- which has an annual operating budget of more than $6 million -- is one option the state is considering in a proposal to shave Department of Corrections spending by $12 million.

The prison provides 86 full-time jobs.

The proposal, by the state Office of Financial Management, comes while the state grapples with a $1.2 billion budget deficit.

Prison superintendent Jane Parnell spent the day in Olympia talking with lawmakers about the proposal. She wasn't available for comment, and state corrections officials said little on Thursday.

"These are only draft proposals, and until we have a chance to work through them, we don't have much to say," said corrections spokeswoman Belinda Stewart.

Union leaders who represent the workers say all they can do for the moment is keep members informed and wait until Nov. 1 -- when they'll know whether the closure is included in next year's budget.

"It's important to understand that this is just a draft," said Matt Suvich, a lobbyist with the Washington Federation of State Employees.

"This is like the first part of the process in response to the huge budget crisis the state is facing."

Some lawmakers say they're skeptical about the proposal. They said it would shift costs incurred by these inmates to other prisons.

"I want to look at how they justify it," said state Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. "Where are they going to save money? They still have to take care of these prisoners."

It was a cost-saving measure that led the state in 1997 to house these inmates here with a staff trained to take care of them, King said.

It costs the state nearly $60,000 a year to keep an inmate at Ahtanum, compared with the roughly $36,000 at other prisons.

David Niles, a correctional sergeant at Ahtanum, said the prison provides unique services to a population that needs them.

"This is about the safety of the community and the safety of the inmates," said Niles, a 41-year-old Selah resident.

He and other employees say they'd heard rumors since December that the prison might close.

"But before (Wednesday) we had hope," he said. "Now it's shock."

Apart from shock, he also feels worry. Niles has a mortgage, teenage children thinking about college and roots in the Yakima Valley.

Fearing the loss of local jobs, state Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, said there will be a concerted effort to convince the Legislature that this isn't the best solution to the budget crisis.

"We don't want to see it happen," he said. "Hopefully we'll be able to persuade the powers to be that this isn't the right decision."

King said shifting inmates to another prison might still drive up costs by creating an increase in special staff elsewhere.

"Now we're going back 15 years and saying let's put them at (another prison), and that's going to save money?" he questions. "I need to see that."

Other proposed cuts include closures of medium- or minimum-security units at the State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and shutting down Larch Corrections Center in Yacolt.

Drastically reducing the number of beds statewide under the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration is also included.

Sen. Mike Carrel, R-Tacoma, who serves on the Human Services and Corrections committee, said making cuts in the Corrections Department will only cost the state in the long run.

"I guess you could say crime is going to pay more now," he said. "The level of crime is going to go up."

He said the cuts will drastically reduce supervision of offenders, lead to early releases and fewer prosecutions.

"They're going to be dumped out on the streets with no treatment," he said of inmates at the Ahtanum facility.

"This (proposal) also includes hundreds of juveniles. They're likely to reoffend and need continued treatment.

"When you put it all together, it's going to be a criminal perfect storm. I'm very, very concerned for the public safety of Washington."

Either way, it's only a temporary fix, he said.

"The type of cuts we are making are stopgap, one-time savings," he said. "This looks good on paper, but out on the streets it's not."

* Melissa Sánchez contributed to this report.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.