Employees of Larch Corrections Center employees voiced their concerns about the upcoming closure of the prison during Clark County Council’s first review of a resolution opposing the decision.
During a July 19 “council time” meeting, three of the five councilors considered a resolution responding to the June 26 announcement by the Washington State Department of Corrections that the minimum-security prison on the east side of the county would be closing this fall.
The resolution states that the council “objects [to] the closure of Larch Corrections Center and urges the Department of Corrections to reverse the decision.”
The resolution states the education, training and community partnerships at the prison help to reduce recidivism among inmates. It adds that some inmates are trained to assist with the Department of Natural Resources for firefighting and have helped respond to such blazes like the roughly 2,000 acre Nakia Creek Fire last year.
The Department of Corrections decided to close Larch because of its remote location, the fact that it’s a minimum-security facility, and its need of millions of dollars in repairs. Since the decision, community members, including the 115 staff at the facility, have spoken out about the planned closure.
Several corrections center staff members spoke ahead of the council’s consideration.
“What I believe is happening is wrong,” staff member Shawn Philiponis said.
He said closing Larch is short-sighted compared to shuttering other facilities such as Olympic Corrections Center near Forks. He said the Forks facility didn’t have the same level of partnerships with other state agencies as Larch does, including the state Department of Natural Resources.
Philiponis said Larch has more inmates who have received their GED or graduated high school through a program with Clark College than all other facilities combined.
He also didn’t believe inmates would be better-served at a higher-population facility than they are currently.
“You go from an institution where your needs are being met in the low 100s, 200s [of inmate population], to now having a population of over 2,000,” Philiponis said.
Sidney Clark, a counselor at Larch, thanked the council for considering a resolution against the closure.
“This is the only official body that Southwest Washington citizens have heard from and stood up about what’s going on with the closure of Larch,” Clark said.
Having inmates help at nearby wildfires is invaluable in a region prone to blazes, he said.
“If we are shut down, we will not have [an] initial attack [on fires],” Clark said.
Councilor Gary Medvigy said he’s had experience working with different departments of corrections before, and has been impacted by fires.
“I’ve been in fires before, I’ve been evacuated before, and I was evacuated last year,” Medvigy said.
He said having inmates as firefighters was a perfect example of restorative justice.
“There is no better program than doing this wildfire fighting because they are giving directly back to the community,” Medvigy said.
He reasoned that more public officials haven’t spoken out against the Larch closure plans because they were not aware of the possibility before the Department of Corrections announced it.
“We had no idea they were going to drop this on us,” Medvigy said.
Given the programs the prison has to reduce recidivism, Medvigy said Larch deserved more resources, not a closure.
“I’m well in favor of enlarging the operations at Larch Mountain because this is a great program for criminal justice,” Medvigy said.
The Clark County Council was expected to formally vote on the resolution during the regular Tuesday, July 25 meeting. Results of the vote were not available before press time. At least one councilor was guaranteed to approve the resolution.
“We are going to fight for you. We need your facility open,” Medvigy said.
