Governor’s budget would shut Ahtanum View Corrections Center

POSTED ON Wednesday, December 09, 2009 AT 09:49AM

Posted on Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Governor’s budget would shut Ahtanum View Corrections Center
By LEAH BETH WARD
Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Gov. Chris Gregoire unveiled a cut-to-the bone budget Wednesday that would close the 130-bed Ahtanum View Corrections Center in Yakima’s West Valley — a move that appears more likely to win legislative approval than the deep cuts outlined for health care and other safety-net programs.

Located on West 64th Avenue, Ahtanum View consists of a minimum-security, 12-year-old prison and a work release program housed in an older building next door. The work-release program would not close.

It was the first correctional facility of its kind in the state when it opened more than 25 years ago, housing medically challenged and disabled offenders who would have trouble in a more traditional prison environment.

While their fragile health and advanced age makes them unique, the inmates are locked up for a variety of crimes, from murder and rape to child molestation and possession of drugs. They would be transferred to Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell by November 2010.

Calling the $31 billion budget “unjust,” Gregoire set the stage for a revenue package next month that could be a combination of tax increases and closing of tax loopholes to close a $2.6 billion shortfall.

“I will do my best to avoid taxes that would slow the recovery,” she said at a news conference in Olympia.

But she also made it clear that raising taxes may be the only way to avoid deep cuts to children’s health programs, general assistance for people disabled by mental or physical problems, prescription drug help for low-income elderly and financial aid for low-income students.

The all-cuts budget would eliminate the state’s pioneering Basic Health Plan, which provides coverage to 65,000 working people who can’t find or afford private insurance. Many employees of the fruit-packing and retail industries in the Yakima Valley depend on Basic Health.

Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said his department is prepared to begin implementing a plan to save taxpayers $65 million over the next four years by trimming prison beds.

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

The 86 full-time em-ployees at the facility earn an average of about $40,000 a year. About 60 of them likely would find jobs elsewhere in the prison system, according to David Niles, a corrections officer and member of the Washington Federation of State Employees, the umbrella union organization that represents employees.

Niles is skeptical the closure will save much if any of the $7.1 million a year it costs to run the minimum-security prison.

“Because we are a stand-alone facility and a medical facility, our costs tend to look higher,” Niles said. “But those medical costs aren’t going to go away. They will just be borne by another facility.”

Politically, however, it’s easier for Gregoire to consolidate prisoners than cut services to the most vulnerable residents who are not behind bars. She gave no indication Wednesday that she has any desire to restore money for prisons through an increase in taxes.

In addition to Ahtanum View, prisons and correc-tional facilities would be closed in Yacolt, Wash., 20 miles northeast of Vancouver, and in Medical Lake, 17 miles west of Spokane. A wing at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla also would be shut down under the governor’s proposed budget.

Republicans took aim at Gregoire’s strategy, saying it fails to break a cycle of deficits that are filled with one-time money transfers and tax increases.

Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, said the governor should implement budget reductions immediately instead of waiting until the start of the fiscal year in July.

“Implementing those savings earlier would mean less cutting overall — and shouldn’t that be the goal?” Zarelli said in a statement.

He called on Gregoire to “revisit” wage increases under state collective bargaining contracts and to explore raising Medicaid co-payments and premiums instead of cutting services.

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, said families have been tightening their budgets and state govern-ment must do the same.

“Holding the taxpayers hostage and threatening them with future tax increases is not responsible governing,” Hinkle said.

Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, also accused Gregoire of playing games by using the need to balance the budget as an excuse to close Ahtanum View.

“I don’t think it’s a done deal yet,” he said. “A year ago, she was doing the same thing with the Selah school.”

Gregoire’s two-year budget released at this time last year originally called for closing Selah’s Yakima Valley School for the developmentally disabled, one of five in the state. But local lawmakers were able to win a reprieve.

This year, Gregoire didn’t touch the Yakima Valley School but proposes to phase out two others — one in Bremerton and another in Buckley.

Longer term plans recom-mended by a consultant this fall would downsize the Yakima Valley School by at least half the number of beds. Current occupancy ranges between 87 and 102.

In her budget documents, Gregoire reiterated her belief that people with special needs are best served in a community rather than an institutional setting such as the Yakima Valley School.

The governor’s budget announcement always marks the beginning of hand-wringing season for social service agencies, teachers and others who depend on state revenue. Democrats and their supporters antici-pated Gregoire’s budget and spared her criticism, but the lobbying has begun.

Last year, Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health handled budget cuts through attrition. Chief executive Rick Weaver is preparing to cope with a potential $1 million in cuts this year from a budget of about $25 million, but he noted that some services can’t just go away.

“You still have to respond when somebody’s going to jump off a building or people are psychotic in the street,” he said.

The proposed budget would eliminate the agency’s detoxification center, which is the only one between Seattle and Spokane for people in an alcohol- or drug-induced crisis.

Also watching nervously are the state’s community health centers, which treat people on Basic Health, Medicaid and Medicare.

Anita Monoian, chief executive of Yakima Neigh-borhood Health Services and chairwoman of the National Association of Community Health Centers, said she doesn’t think the cuts will force clinics to close.

“But I do see the potential elimination of the Basic Health Plan severely limiting access to care for low-income adults,” Monoian said.

• Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 509-577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.

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GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic

Ahtanum View Corrections Center inmates Bernard Millyard, left, and William Burkett assemble a jigsaw puzzle in the facility's day room Dec. 9, 2009. The center is slated for closure under a budget submitted by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Inmates at the West Valley facility would be moved to the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.

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Posted by thetruth at 12/09/09 11:20AM Post ID#: #19946

I wonder if DOC will release a 100 or so other SERIOUS crime inmates to make room for the A. View group.