By Andy Porter
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLA WALLA — The latest chapter in the ongoing story of Washington State Penitentiary has opened.
Or at least half of it has.
Under construction for the past two years, two new medium security units with a total capacity of 512 inmates have been completed. One is now up and running and the second is awaiting the Legislature’s approval of funding to start operation.
The new units are the concrete result of a complex question that created headlines several years ago. At that time state officials were wrestling with how to slash costs in the Department of Corrections and Department of Human Services by closing facilities and eliminating hundreds of beds.
Closure of the penitentiary’s old main institution was one of the top options, a move that local officials feared would result in the loss of hundreds of jobs. But the final report on closure options, issued in late 2009, held a key provision in regard to what could, or should, be done at the penitentiary.
That condition was that funds be found to build new medium security units at WSP as well as make other improvements. Despite the tough economic times in 2009, the state Legislature approved funds to design the new units and expand the prison’s West Complex kitchen facilities. The budget language was also silent on job cuts at the penitentiary.
The new units, each designed to accommodate 256 prisoners, took another step forward in 2011 when the Legislature approved an operating budget with money for construction, which got underway that year. The buildings were finished last spring and inmates began moving into the first unit in August.
But money is still needed to open and staff the second unit. Toward that end, $5.1 million is in the supplemental budget proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee for the Legislature to consider when the 2014 session opens Monday.
The new units are part of many changes that have happened over the past several years at the penitentiary, which has seen inmate populations being shifted from old to new quarters.
Today the old main institution, designated as the East Complex, now houses minimum security inmates who had been located in a now-closed facility outside the prison’s security perimeter. The prison’s West Complex, built between 2005 and 2008, now houses four close-custody units with beds for 792 inmates as well as the prison’s administrative offices, a visitation quarters, classrooms, a gym, library and kitchen facilities.
The recently-completed medium security units now form part of what has become the South Complex. Along with the medium-security units, the area also contains the Baker-Adams-Ranier buildings that have been converted from medium security to close-custody and the prison’s Intensive Management Units, where maximum security prisoners are kept.
Assistant Superintendent Chris Bowman said the construction costs for the new medium security units totaled about $47.5 million, but that money also provided additional construction for new gates, walkways and other improvements.
Opening the second unit will require about 43 new personnel of which 30 will be correctional officers and another 13 support staff.