By Phil Ferolito
Yakima Herald-Republic
YAKIMA, Wash. — An effort to reopen the Yakima County jail on Pacific Avenue has gained significant traction with the Legislature’s decision to agree to a $1.5 million contract to house 75 women inmates here, along with a commitment to find ways to fully utilize the facility.
During the recently concluded session in which a supplemental budget was approved, lawmakers directed the state Department of Corrections to probe possible ways it could use the 288-bed facility, how much it would cost and to report back in December.
State corrections officials are to “assess possible uses for the Yakima county jail facility, including, but not limited to, housing for short-term offenders; housing for community supervision violators or absconders; housing for offenders with special program needs, such as offenders with mental health issues; and housing for older or infirm offenders,” according to language in the supplemental budget.
The move comes at a time when the state is grappling with an overcrowded prison system, and Yakima County is struggling to find a way for the $20.6 million jail, constructed in 2006, to pay for itself. The state is reluctant to build new prisons when there is excess capacity in some county corrections systems.
The Legislature last year approved a measure allowing roughly 300 prisoners to be housed at jails in Yakima or King counties to help alleviate the problem at state prisons, which are now overcapacity by about 600 inmates, state Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“We’re looking at investigating every opportunity to house inmates at the lowest possible rate,” Ross said. “With Yakima sitting there with an empty facility, (it is) an attractive place for the state.”
Ross credited county Department of Corrections Director Ed Campbell and Yakima County Commissioner Kevin Bouchey with assembling a strong presentation before the Legislature as to why the state should consider Yakima.
“I think they had a solid case and it really made it work,” he said.
Other local lawmakers who pushed for the measure were Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger; Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside; and Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake. Warnick’s district used to cover part of Terrace Heights.
“It came down to ‘are we going to do this?’ and we lobbied heavily for it,” Ross said. “Now it’s going to come down to ‘is it cost saving?’ Let’s do more of it.”
Campbell said it costs the state nearly $100 a day to house one inmate, while the county could charge about a third of that. He said the state stands to save nearly $4 million a year if it could house enough inmates to fill the Pacific Avenue jail.
But the state isn’t the county’s only prospect for breathing life back into the local jail bed-rental business, which is the reason the new jail was built in the first place. There are at least four cities and one county on the west side interested in renting jail space here, Bouchey said.
And after watching the Pacific Avenue jail go idle at the end of 2010, when several contracts worth millions of dollars were lost, the renewed interest is very welcome, he said.
“There are several jurisdictions that we are in discussion with and have sent (proposed) contracts to,” Bouchey said. “It’s just an interesting time and the cycle has changed.”
The jail on Pacific Avenue was built primarily to house inmates from other communities on a contract basis. Lost contracts not only led to its closure, but left a $9.3 million hole in the county DOC’s $26 million annual budget. A decline in inmates at the county’s main jail on Front Street further complicated budget problems. Money was shifted from a road levy and the county’s Department of Law and Justice to keep Corrections afloat.
Since then, the county DOC has been seriously looking for ways reopen the jail on Pacific Avenue to help cover about $17 million still owed on its construction.
So far, seven of the 75 female inmates under the contract have been moved to the county’s main jail, with the rest expected by May. The contract expires in June 2015, but Ross is confident that it will be renewed with other possible contracts coming online.
“The last thing we want to do is build another state (prison),” he said. “That’s a multimillion-dollar project. Rather, we’re looking at other facilities that we can contract with.”
Campbell said the 75 inmates would be enough to open at least a portion of the Pacific Avenue jail, and the potential contracts from the west side could see the entire facility running again.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to open it up by the end of the year,” he said.