Washington wants to close three inmate re-entry centers. Tri-Cities supporters push back

KENNEWICK – Paul Anderson struggled to stay out of trouble with the law for years after getting out of prison.

It wasn’t until he spent six months at the Washington State Department of Corrections re-entry program in Kennewick that he learned how to deal with the stress that came with living outside an institution.

The program is more than a work release center, it helps former inmates transition back into society by helping them find jobs, get services and make connections in the community.

Without the centers, prisoners will just be given some cash and a bus ticket back to where they were arrested.

Now 12 years later, Anderson has become one of dozens of success stories to graduate from the Bruneau Avenue program. And on Sunday, he was one of about 50 protesters who called on state officials to keep it open.

The Tri-Cities Reentry Center, as well as facilities in Yakima and Spokane, are being targeted for closure as part of a plan to shore up an estimated $16 billion Washington state budget shortfall.

If all three are closed, it would put the closest men’s facility in Wenatchee, more than 130 miles away, and women’s facility in Spokane, 140 miles away.

This would undermine the purpose of having a re-entry center close to where a person is going to be released, Tri-City Reentry Center Manager Winnie Chan said, speaking to the Tri-City Herald as a private citizen.

Part of the program includes building the support system residents will need when they finish their prison terms.

The 24-hour minimum security facility has served the Tri-Cities for 26 years. It includes rooms for 34 men and six women to spend up to the last year of their prison term before their release.

The program offers mental health and substance abuse treatment, job training, education navigation and food services.

Chan said the Kennewick facility has changed lives, including Anderson’s.

“It’s truly impactful to them,” she said. “I have so many stories of our former residents reaching out. Some of them have said, ‘You saved my life.’ ”

Budget problems

Anderson, who works as a manager for Tri-City Glass, said the time he spent at the re-entry center allowed him to break the recidivism cycle.

Several participants shared similar stories on Sunday. It is difficult to transition from prison or jail where everything is guided and monitored. Even with the best intentions, Anderson said it’s easy for people to slide back into committing crimes.

“I would do good for a little while, but then something would come along in life that was hard, and I reverted back to what was the easiest thing to do,” he said.

But the state Senate budget proposal cut the facility’s $2.3 million funding and 22 jobs.

Department of Corrections Secretary Tim Lang told the Yakima Herald-Republic that the staff of the facilities do life-changing work.

“Successful re-entry also is a matter of public safety,” Lang said in a statement to the Tri-City Herald.

“We know that re-entry center graduates are less likely to commit new crimes and wind up back in prison.”

On average, the facilities are less than half full, making them a target for potential cuts.

Changes that followed the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision to overturn drug possession laws have led to fewer people going into the re-entry centers.

Jaune Sonnier, who works at Yakima’s Ahtanum View Reentry Center, said that there is a backlog of people who could be eligible for re-entry programs, but the changes in the law have made it harder to get in.

She said it’s far less expensive to keep them in the re-entry centers than it is for prison, and has a far better success rate then if the same clients were simple released.

Sonnier spoke to the Tri-City Herald as a private citizen and not in her capacity as a state employee.

“This is just not the solution,” she said. “Research shows that our people put money back into the community and our people are less likely to (reoffend) and (more likely) to become productive members of society.”

“So if we just figured out how to get people from prisons to here and to get treatment then it would resolve the problem and you get more money back into the budget and into the economy.”

Anderson has helped others get work after leaving prison and going into the center.

James Dudley is one of those people. Anderson has helped him with a job and brought him to church.

Dudley is nearly finished with his year at the re-entry center and he credits his experience there with helping him succeed.

“There’s really genuine staff here that wants to see people transition into the community and be successful,” Dudley said.

Part of what has made the facility successful in the past two decades is its connections to the community helping participants find a path to be successful, Anderson said.

“They get to learn from people that have succeeded and say, ‘Hey, there is a chance,’ ” Anderson said. “I’ve been clean for 14 years now.”

Dudley said he expects that without the re-entry center, others will struggle when they didn’t have to.

“I’m afraid for the residents that are going to be transitioning into the community from the institutions,” Dudley said. “Personally, I’ve already been here for almost a year, so mentally I’m already acclimated to the community. … But I’m most fearful for those coming behind me.”