Jacks and other legislators say prison is vital for community
Clark County – Agreeing that it’s a southwestern Washington victory both for the local economy and for public safety, Clark County legislators today hailed state Department of Corrections (DOC) plans to keep the Larch Corrections Center open.
“This is great news for the professional lives of more than 110 Larch staff people,” said state Rep. Jim Jacks, D-Vancouver (49th Legislative District). “It’s certainly very good news for the well-being of their families. Hundreds of business folks in Yacolt and other communities all over our county can now surely also breath an awfully big sigh of relief.”
Jacks saluted “the community effort, teamwork and bipartisan exertion on the part of Democratic and Republican legislators from all over our region.”
State Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver (49th Legislative District), said the department’s announcement “simply makes tremendous fiscal sense. It’s less expensive to house offenders at a facility such as Larch where they can do important work in the community that provides big benefits for the public.”
Along related economic lines, state Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver (49th Legislative District), pointed out that “inmates who successfully complete their sentences at a minimum-security facility such as Larch have a lower recidivism rate than offenders coming out of other types of facilities.”
State Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver (17th Legislative District), also applauded DOC plans “to expand the facility from 240 beds back up to its 480-bed capacity. This announcement means everything in the world for our communities in terms of important, middle-class jobs for many families.”
The four lawmakers and other Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate representing southwestern Washington banded together earlier this year to protest initial plans to close Larch. They called for a thorough investigation of the fiscal impact – both on the community and on other state agencies – that would be exacted by closing the facility.