Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009

Coyote Ridge Corrections Center swapping spaces

By Joe Chapman, Herald staff writer

CONNELL -- The state Department of Corrections plans to close half of the

original Coyote Ridge Corrections Center prison, even as it plans to start

moving prisoners into the newly constructed 2,048-bed, medium-security

expansion of the site next month.

The original facility opened as a 600-bed minimum-security prison in 1992.

"In all actuality, a couple months from now Coyote Ridge will certainly

house more inmates than it houses today," said Dan Pacholke, deputy director

of prisons for the department. "But we'll close one housing unit in minimum

security and bring up two new housing units inside the main facility."

The closure of one unit at the original facility is necessary because the

state forecasts it will need to house fewer male inmates in minimum security

in coming months, Pacholke said. The reduced forecast takes into account the

expected return of about 1,200 inmates who currently are housed out of

state.

Pacholke said he couldn't say for sure how many of the current staff would

be moved out of the original minimum-security facility when its prisoner

population drops to about 300.

But it could be about 30, he said, almost all of whom would be relocated

into the expansion facility at Coyote Ridge or elsewhere in the department.

About 330 employees work at Coyote Ridge now, up from about 150 before the

expansion. With the original and expansion units at full capacity, Coyote

Ridge's top staffing would be about 650.

Connell officials had been hearing the department was planning to close the

minimum-security unit for some time now, said Mayor Gary Walton. But how the

closure will affect the community in the short run isn't known, he said.

"It's going to be wait and see how it impacts the city of Connell," Walton

said.

He said he's also being told there's a chance the unit will be cleaned up

and re-opened down the road.

In the meantime, Connell officials are continuing to brace for the expected

impact of the prison expansion on the community.

A local committee previously determined the state should reimburse the

community $10 million for one-time impacts on the city, county, school

district and hospital district for costs related to the prison. The

governor's office has pared that assessment down to $1 million, which

would pay for a new ambulance and firetruck and an addition to the Connell fire hall, Walton said.

The Department of Corrections has said it plans to move the first 260

inmates into the medium-security expansion in February and 260 into a second

unit in March. A third unit will be opened by July, at which point the

department will look at new forecasts to determine the need for prisoner

housing through the next fiscal year.

The department had been planning the prisoner move at least since

construction on the expansion began in June 2006. As recently as last

spring, the department expected to hire 200 employees for the expansion by

the end of last year.

But last week, the department reversed course on eight of its new hires at

Coyote Ridge, notifying them that they would be let go. The decision was the

result of the reduced prisoner forecasts as well as the downturn in the

state's economy, Pacholke said.

In the weakened economy, the department's turnover rate dropped because

fewer workers were leaving their jobs, he said.

"It's really hard to explain how quick staff turnover went almost to zero,"

he said. Just a couple of years ago, the department was facing a challenge

of not being able to hire enough employees to staff its new facilities, he

said.

"You go from that to today, where all of a sudden in a nine-day period we

went from hire, hire, hire, hire, to where nobody's leaving employment with

us."

The eight employees given separation notices at Coyote Ridge included

corrections officers and on-call personnel who hadn't yet completed the

probationary periods after their hires.

The department also released 10 workers at the Washington State Penitentiary

in Walla Walla and five at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

The department is considering closing units and laying off workers at the

Walla Walla prison to address the state's budget crunch. But Pacholke said

the budget wasn't the reason for letting the employees go at Coyote Ridge,

nor did he expect any layoffs there.