Prisoners Will Sleep On Floor New Bunks Won’t Arrive Until Oct. 6 At Airway Heights Facility

Hard time is about to get a little harder at Airway Heights Corrections Center.

Forty prisoners will begin sleeping on mattresses on the floor at the state prison this weekend to make room for newcomers.

Most of the prisoners will be living in the day room at the minimum-security camp until new bunks arrive the week of Oct. 6, said prison spokesman Cly Evans.

“The cold hard fact of prison in the United States is that sometimes people sleep on the floor on mattresses,” Evans said. “This is really for a very short time.”

Inmates already living at Airway Heights who are eligible for minimum security will move into the camp, a housing unit for well-behaved prisoners with less than four years left to serve.

The 40 newcomers were moved out of a prison in Shelton, Wash., to make room for a new youthful offender program. They will go into the medium security unit in Airway Heights. Another 120 Shelton inmates are being sent to Walla Walla.

The move brings the total population at Airway Heights to 444 in the minimum-security camp and 1,536 in the medium-security unit.

The camp has both cells and open dorms. It’s surrounded by fences topped with razor wire, which Evans said isn’t as necessary for security as it is an attempt to make the community feel safe.

Nearly 250 of the men leave the camp regularly to work on crews with the state Department of Natural Resources and the cities of Airway Heights, Davenport, Reardan and Medical Lake.

The camp was built to hold up to 800 men, but there’s been no need to install upper bunks until now.

“They’re not going to be happy about being on the mattresses, but it sounds worse than it is,” Evans said.

“They’re good mattresses in heated and air-conditioned rooms, with a toilet. It’s not ideal, but in our situation it’s short-term. There are some places where it’s been permanent.”

, DataTimes