Budget writers provided an additional 35 employees to keep the $42-million-a-year sex offender treatment facility in operation.
Not surprisingly, costs have exceeded expectations and officials at the Department of Social and Health Services now say they need 23 additional employees — mostly security officers to patrol the island and boat operators — to keep the Special Commitment Center operational. Having the luxury of keeping the sexual predators isolated on McNeil Island in the heart of Puget Sound, costs state taxpayers an additional $6.6 million a year, according to a consultant’s study released in November. That’s an average of $23,000 for each of the 285 offenders.
As a result of DSHS’ request for additional funding at a time when state budget writers are wrestling with another $1.4 billion budget deficit, some state lawmakers are considering moving the Special Commitment Center off the island to save money.
“We’ve got to look at all those structural changes. If it costs a fortune to run this thing on the island, why are we doing that?” House budget chairman Ross Hunter said. “Let’s run the thing where it’s less expensive.”
While we agree that budget writers must keep a keen eye out for all budget savings, the simple truth is, moving the sex offender incarceration and treatment center to the mainland is going to be costly and it’s going to spark an immediate backlash in the community unlucky enough to host the Special Commitment Center.
Just ask the folks living in the Grand Mound area of southern Thurston County.
Hunter’s preferred site for the habitual sex offenders is the recently shuttered Maple Lane School, a juvenile detention center in Grand Mound. 20th District legislators who represent south Thurston County are working to scuttle Hunter’s plan.
They have a solid argument.
When Maple Lane was closed, state officials said they were looking to convert the juvenile detention facility into a so-called reception center. The reception center, currently at the Washington Correction Center prison north of Shelton, is the first stop for criminal defendants who are sentenced to prison. It’s the place where state officials collect the criminal’s background information, assess physical and mental health issues and decide which prison would best accommodate the inmate. At any given time there are about 1,000 inmates in the reception center and most stay for a couple of months before they are farmed out to Walla Walla or Monroe, Clallam Bay or Airway Heights near Spokane, Stafford Creek near Aberdeen or any one of the state’s other correctional institutions.
The Grand Mound community and area lawmakers have more-or-less embraced the notion that Maple Lane could be converted to an inmate intake center. It will provide new jobs in an area of South Sound that is experiencing high unemployment.
South county residents have shown a willingness to host a prison, but are opposed to a Special Commitment Center for violent sexual offenders, most of whom are not amenable to treatment.
The Grand Mound community is not saying, “Not in my backyard,” they are saying, “There’s a limit to what we are willing to accept.”
That’s a reasonable response and one Hunter and other lawmakers must take into consideration as they determine the future of the Special Commitment Center. If the sex offenders leave McNeil Island, it’s best that state officials find an isolated area for them or a community willing to accept the state facility.
