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Budget cuts force closure of Larch

Corrections center will shut down by Feb.; union vows fight

By Kathie Durbin
Published: September 30, 2010, 12:00am

The state Department of Corrections announced Thursday that Larch Corrections Center will close by Feb. 1, 2011, as part of $53 million in corrections budget cuts ordered by Gov. Chris Gregoire to help balance the 2010-11 state budget.

“The executive staff and I struggled with some of our most difficult decisions yet,” Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said in a letter to all corrections employees. “After nearly three years of budget cuts, we have fewer options to consider. And because we cannot reduce the number of offenders we incarcerate and supervise, the workload remains the same even as we have a smaller budget with which to work.”

Larch is about eight miles east of Hockinson in east Clark County in the Yacolt Burn State Forest.

Larch staff members were informed about the pending closure at a meeting Thursday at the prison. Teamsters Local 117, which bargains for Larch employees, said on its website that it “is preparing to take legal action to protect the safety of our members and their jobs.”

“As soon as cuts are officially announced, we will aggressively challenge the state’s irresponsible action,” the union statement said. Union officials said they plan to hold a number of events to demand “dignity and respect for correctional workers,” including a day of action at the Capitol in Olympia and political roundtables with legislators.

Larch employees have invited state lawmakers and legislative candidates to take part in a community town hall today from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the YWCA Community Room, 3609 Main St. in Vancouver, to discuss the closure.

“We cannot afford this economic burden; it would further slow the recovery in this economically depressed part of our state,” said Sidney Clark, a Larch counselor, in a letter to the Southwest Washington legislative delegation sent Monday.

The corrections department has scheduled a formal press conference today to discuss the cuts, which also will include the elimination of numerous positions and programs statewide.

Among other changes, all major prisons will have one-day lockdowns each month to reduce overtime costs and allow time for staff training; drug treatment and education programs in prisons will be reduced; and inmates will not be allowed funeral or deathbed visits unless the cost of their security escorts is paid in advance.

Over the past three years, the department has eliminated more than 1,200 positions, Vail said.

The new round of cutbacks will eliminate an additional 299 positions and leave another 118 unfilled.

Larch is the only prison that will close under the budget-cutting plan.

Rumors of an imminent closure have circulated for weeks. Gregoire said in August that the minimum security prison would close as a result of the need to make across-the-board budget cuts.

Larch was downsized from 480 beds to 240 beds earlier this year as part of a plan to consolidate prison beds statewide.

Vail told The Columbian in August that the closure of Larch would save about $2.5 million in the first six months of 2011.

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