5000 Inmates die each year

[Jack Peterson]

45 minutes ago, bastonjock said:

I worked at Broadmoor hospital in the UK , it's the special hospital where we lock up the real bad dudes

 Fair to say though that it IS one of 3 major Prison Hospitals in the UK for the Criminally Insane.  whole lot of Difference to a Prison of Norm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadmoor_Hospital

Edited October 8, 2019 by Jack Peterson

[bastonjock]

2 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Fair to say though that it IS one of 3 major Prison Hospitals in the UK for the Criminally Insane.  whole lot of Difference to a Prison of Norm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadmoor_Hospital

One of my neighbours in Scotland was sent to the Scottish one ( carstairs) , he became imbalanced and would walk around reading his bible,  one day he decided that his father was the devil , so he beat him to death to save the world , he later wrote to my mother and in the letter he was trying to persuade my mum that he had saved the world 

At broadmoor one guy gave me a grafic description how he had gutted some bloke with a Bowie knife , he told me he was drunk and then asked my opinion asto neither or not he had a drink problem 

I was very happy when the broadmoor job finished

[Mike J]

The rate of incarceration in the USA was skyrocketing from the early 80s to about 2010.  At the rate it was growing I was beginning to think that by the year 2050 every adult in the USA would either be in prison, or working for the prison as a jail guard.   Fortunately the trend seems to have reversed itself.  Actually I think a lot of that reversal was due to lack of jail space, they could not build prisons fast enough to keep pace.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/americas-incarceration-rate-is-at-a-two-decade-low/

[Tommy T.]

 

So almost 1% of US adults are incarcerated? That is a bit shocking.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Tommy T.

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

 

So almost 1% of US adults are incarcerated? That is a bit shocking.

I'm shocked it isn't more given how crazy you guys are!

Only joking guys! 

[Jack Peterson]

13 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Only joking guys! 

 

[Tommy T.]

19 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I'm shocked it isn't more given how crazy you guys are!

 

What is that saying about the kettle and the pot and paint and black?

Of course, I know you were probably referring to AK, right?

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

What is that saying about the kettle and the pot and paint and black?

Of course, I know you were probably referring to AK, right?

My lips are sealed! 

[Mike J]

22 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

 

So almost 1% of US adults are incarcerated? That is a bit shocking.

I lived in Yakima, Washington prior to moving here six years ago.  Yakima was "renting" jail space to Seattle because they had run out of jail space.  In their infinite wisdom Yakima officials decided to build a "jail complex" and rent out lots of jail space to produce revenue.   They quickly found a large piece of agricultural land and bought it for an outrageous price because the selling price "fit the financial plan".  Surprise, surprise, the land had no water and no sewer.  They were not able to buy water rights and sold the land at a big loss.  Their whole plan kind of spiraled out financial control.  The "complex" ended up being a white elephant and a drain on country resources.  You can read these two news articles and see both the "promise of riches" and the "end results".  Excellent case that shows how "short term vision" can lead to "long term problems".

All these years and it STILL CHAPS MY @SS.  

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Yakima-County-locks-up-market-for-new-jail-space-1075609.php

YAKIMA -- When King County announced it would raise jail rates earlier this year, Yakima County wasted no time showing who could lock 'em up better and cheaper.

With the help of a marketing director, Yakima County jail officials went to Seattle, Bellevue and other Puget Sound-area cities and made a pitch to lure their business east.

They waived a jail booking fee, offered to shuttle inmates across the Cascades, and even teased with amenities such as video conferencing, allowing visitors to talk to relatives doing time 160 miles away.

And the clincher: They'd do it for one-third less than King County charges.

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Mercer Island, Federal Way and Renton signed up. Seattle, Bellevue and others are considering it.

Jails have become a booming business in Yakima County, an agricultural valley better known for fruit trees and sagebrush than jail beds.

The farm-rich but money-poor county now relies on jail-bed contracts for 18 percent of its general-fund revenues. And that's likely to increase as Yakima County considers building a new jail to satisfy increasing demand, both home-grown and imported.

Already, more than one-third of its 870 confined inmates are men and women sent from Lynnwood, Olympia and other Western Washington cities. Most have committed misdemeanor crimes: stealing, driving without a license or domestic violence.

"We are very aggressive," said Ken Ray, hired in 1994 when Yakima County moved jail operations out of the Sheriff's Office and into a newly created department of corrections.

"The contract business keeps our lights on and the justice department running."

In 1993, the county earned only 27 cents for every dollar it spent on criminal justice. Now it earns about 70 cents for every dollar it spends.

The county is far from turning a profit on jail operations. But with money earned from jail beds -- $8.5 million in the last year -- it has used revenues to house its own growing jail population and add treatment programs.

It also opened an innovative 160-bed facility that's getting notice not only from judges and city officials, but also from inmates requesting transfers there.

Jean Rietschel, presiding judge of Seattle Municipal Court, said she walked away from a recent visit impressed by how the facility was run.

Opened last year, the Yakima County Community Restitution Center was modeled after the highly regarded Northern Rehabilitation Center in Shoreline.

The new center is located in Union Gap, 10 minutes from downtown Yakima. Surrounded by a police station, a Boys Scouts of America office, a church and Costco, it looks more like a community center than a jail.

Rietschel liked the availability of programs that helped inmates improve themselves and fulfill court orders, including state-certified drug and alcohol treatment, mental-health counseling and work programs.

"They're adding programs while King County is losing them," the judge said, referring to King County's plan to close some treatment beds at its Shoreline facility.

Low-risk, non-violent offenders are sent here. Some await trials, but most are serving short sentences.

The front doors to the center are locked. Cell doors are not.

Terann Hoptowit shares one cell with a few dozen other men. He got busted for stealing beer and resisting arrest, and was shipped here in September to serve 26 months.

Reflecting the philosophy of the place, he wears blue jeans, a green polo shirt and a green sweat shirt rather than the standard-issue jail jumpsuit. He also wears a badge that denotes he is a "RESIDENT," not an inmate.

Being far from home has been lonely, the 35-year-old Auburn man said. Echoing other inmates, Hoptowit said family and friends haven't visited because the 160-mile trek is too far for them.

Rietschel, the Seattle judge, also worried about the toll such distance would have on inmates and their families. "It's important for people to maintain their community ties," she said.

But Hoptowit, like other inmates, said he ultimately didn't mind the trade-off. He liked being in a facility whose mission is to rehabilitate rather than incarcerate.

Every week, he attends anger-management classes. He gets drug and alcohol treatment.

"It helps if you apply yourself," said Hoptowit, who has curly black hair and a dark mustache. "Whatever you put in, that's what you get out. So when I get released, I'll be able to stay sober."

Jennifer Gilpatrick, 24, said she sent several letters to Olympia jail officials pleading to be transferred east because she heard people raving about the treatment programs.

"I'm taking all the classes," she said one afternoon while working on a quilt.

In her room, about 30 women sat at clustered tables, writing in notebooks, sewing quilts, writing letters. Beds are stacked close together in the far back, but the room has the feel of a dorm, with familiar trappings such as a coffee maker, ironing board, soda machine and microwave.

"I didn't understand why Auburn would send me here," said Angela Wayrynen, 30, looking up from a three-ring binder containing her journal. "When I got here, I was happier."

Wayrynen has been in and out of jail since 18, committing crimes to get her methamphetamine fix. Her last misdeed, forging a check, landed her 90 days.

"I think that my problem all along is that I need (drug) treatment," said Wayrynen, who has been getting drug counseling since she got here. "I can't wait to get out. This is giving me tools to go on."

Will Paulakis is the barrel-chested 18-year jail veteran who presides over the restitution center. He remembers the old way of doing business, when guards walked around with brass keys and locked everyone up, he said. "That's of the past," he said, though he later added that this alternative sells better west of the Cascades than in more conservative Eastern Washington.

Ray, the county's energetic corrections director, is responsible for many of the changes in Yakima County's jail system.

"We realized that most of the people who are incarcerated are not likely to spend their lives in prison," said Ray, who one colleague described as equal parts corrections officer, psychiatrist, preacher and bureaucrat.

Corrections officials found that a majority of inmates have some form of chemical addiction, and treatment was the proper course to prevent them from returning to jail.

When Ray came on board in 1994, the county did a massive review of its jail population and realized that it had large numbers of people jailed who were awaiting trial.

Those who did not pose a risk to the community were released into community supervision or home-monitoring programs.

With beds available, the county realized it could make money renting them. It put together a business plan, hired a marketing director and went after Western Washington cities.

Yakima County is now searching for a site for its new jail, which could have up to 864 beds. Its future, however, may depend on whether many of two dozen cities renegotiating contracts with King County decide to sign long-term contracts in Yakima.

Several counties, including Pierce and Snohomish, are in the process of completing new jail facilities, raising questions about whether Yakima may be relying too much on its Western Washington neighbors.

But corrections and county officials say, based on their own studies, there's a real need for jail beds. And there's room for Yakima County's business to grow.

"If we continue to think we're just agriculture, it's unrealistic," county Administrator Doug Cochran said. "We have to change with the times."

https://www.theolympian.com/news/article25277317.html

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The first sign of trouble came in a telephone call just before Christmas.

Yakima County Corrections Director Ed Campbell learned from his staff that the city of Federal Way was pulling its 30 inmates out of the Yakima County jail system.

Auburn followed in quick succession, withdrawing 60 prisoners.

Despite earlier assurances from his 35 King County city customers that they would renew most bed rental contracts set to expire Dec. 31, the exodus was on.

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When it was over, Campbell found himself with roughly 30 contract inmates - from what had been 300 - and what could be a $7 million or deeper hole in his $32 million budget. The loss nearly equals what the county spends every year to operate the assessor, treasurer, auditor, county clerk and planning departments combined.

Campbell calls it the most difficult time he and the department have faced.

"I believe we are going to have to go through some restructuring. I'm not certain we will fill all the vacant beds," he said.

County officials face some tough decisions about how to close the gap, which is made more difficult by an obligation to pay back the bonds sold to build the new jail near State Fair Park - the very purpose of which was to house contract inmates. The bond payments plus money Campbell must set aside for capital improvements amount to about $3 million.

By laying off 33 people, eliminating five vacant positions and renegotiating some contracts for jail services, Campbell will cover about half the losses.

What happened to Yakima County reflects a broader trend throughout the state and the nation as inmate populations drop.Campbell and Yakima County simply got underbid in what has become an increasingly competitive marketplace as counties look to narrow gaping holes in their budgets by contracting out an increasing number of empty beds.

More than ever, money is now driving the rental business.

The trend is critical to Yakima County because it relies on bed rentals to cover its costs.

The department operates on its revenues, including $10 million from general county tax dollars to support housing county inmates.

Bed rental contracts with county cities, King County, the state and federal governments and miscellaneous revenues from telephones, inmate commissary and other sources make up its budget.

"There is a lot of pressure on the market because jurisdictions are struggling," Campbell said. "There are fewer inmates out there and more jurisdictions selling."

Chelan County jail chief Phil Stanley said the decline in inmate populations is a sign of the economic times as counties find cheaper alternatives to incarceration through home detention and pretrial release.

One major source of jail inmates - driving on a suspended license - has been decriminalized."There has been an effort to try to reduce the number of bed days in jails to save money," said Stanley, whose county rents out about 90 beds. "The jail budgets for counties have become very expensive."

The whole dynamic likely will change even more when a consortium of seven south King County cities opens an 800-bed jail for minor offenders in Des Moines, Wash., south of Seattle, in September.

The facility, South Correctional Entity (SCORE), will take all misdemeanor offenders from the seven cities - Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila - at projected daily rates of $112 in 2012, according to Penny Bartley, director of the SCORE jail.

All seven cities were part of the group that signed agreements to house prisoners in Yakima County in 2002.

Other cities in the county can use the new jail, but they will be required to pay a higher rate, something over $120 per day, according to a representative of cities not among the seven.

With that new jail moving toward completion and beds opening up elsewhere, the negotiations between Yakima County and the cities became more complex and more fluid as individual cities made their own decisions about their needs and where those needs could be accommodated, city representatives said.

County officials say they were caught off guard by the pullout decisions. They thought they had offered an incentive to cities by letting them out of a prior requirement that they rent a minimum number of beds.

"There was this hope that all things would be the same and the contract would continue as is. There were dynamics that changed and there was nothing we could do about it," said County Commissioner Mike Leita. "We couldn't stop other counties from building beds and we can't stop Snohomish County or Benton County from subsidizing bed rates."

When the dust settled, the King County inmates were spread across the state. Many are in Snohomish County; some are in Chelan and a lesser number are housed in Okanogan County. In all three cases, bed-rental rates are a third or more below what Yakima County is charging this year.

Snohomish County has signed contracts worth $1.5 million with at least seven cities in King County for a total of more than 135 beds, and more contracts are pending.

Chelan County picked up new contracts with Federal Way and Kent as of Jan. 1, adding them to Kirkland, which already had inmates housed in the Chelan jail.

Maj. Doug Jeske with the Snohomish County sheriff's office said he began spreading the word last summer that the county was in the market and had beds to rent. The news traveled throughout King County just as the cities were continuing to talk with Yakima County.

Catherine Cornwall, a policy analyst for the city of Seattle, said Yakima County had proposed a rate increase in 2009 for renewal of the contracts. Campbell lowered the price after taking over Corrections late that year.

But as talks progressed, the cities were looking for alternatives, Cornwall said.

"Operationally, a drive to Everett is a lot easier. The rates were more competitive," she said.

Cornwall said Seattle appreciated the service it received from Yakima County during the seven-year contract, but that's little solace to Yakima County officials as they look to reduce the yawning budget gap.

They have several options: eliminating programs instituted at the request of the King County cities, reducing the jail's contribution to cover maintenance costs, more layoffs, using reserves, or finding new bed rental customers.

As a start, the county has closed three units of the new jail near State Fair Park since the King County inmates left.

While possible, more layoffs beyond the 33 already announced are at the bottom of the list, county commissioners said.

"I would tell you there are more palatable opportunities than staff reductions," said Leita, who has dealt most with the jail since he took office in 2005. "Whether we can achieve that is yet to be determined. We are reluctant to go to that alternative because we have invested a lot of money into our corrections officers."

Campbell isn't giving up on the rental market. He said he is talking to three of what he described as large agencies, including one in Idaho, that could bring in 150 rental inmates.

He expects to know in two weeks whether those rentals are possible. If they are, the county's problems mostly will be solved. Absent that, the agency will have to make more cuts to fill the remainder of the budget gap.

One thing is for sure. The county won't cut rates to compete with Snohomish County, where the daily bed rate is $62.50, and Okanogan, where beds cost $55 per day.

Yakima County is charging $99.80 per day to the few King County cities that remain under contract. County officials suspect other counties are charging rates that don't cover the actual cost.

Leita said the county won't get into a bidding war because it would require county government Ñ taxpayers Ñ to cover more of the cost.

Another possibility, he said, would be for the county to market its beds to more serious offenders. He said the SCORE facility and other jails are marketing space designed for misdemeanor offenders, opening up what he called a niche market for higher-level offenders.

"We are spending $7 million to harden our (downtown) facility to make it more secure," he said. "We might choose to bring in some of the less desirables at a premium price."

In any event, the county faces difficult choices.

"Our issue right now is for the next three months we have to make some hard, short-term decisions to keep the ship upright," Leita said.

[Tommy T.]

That's an interesting and sad story ultimately. The rate for "beds" is higher than some decent hotels.

I won't even start listing the inefficiencies and waste I saw when I worked in several different government jobs over the years - federal and state. We would need to open a new topic and I honestly now would rather forget it all that I haven't already forgotten.