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MINUTES
WASHINGTON STATE JAIL INDUSTRIES BOARD MEETING
February 16, 2000
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Green Hill Training School
Chehalis, Washington
Board Members Attending:
Andrea Bynum, Ed Crawford, Doug Jacques, Anton Jones, Runette Mitchell, Ted Rutt,
Bruce Thompson, and Dan Tonokovich
Proxies Presented:
Ken Bensimon for Jeralita Costa, Fred Slipper for Howard Yarbrough
Advisory Committee Members Attending:
Ilona Kirby, Debra Latimer and Richard Winn
Guests:
Art Schmidt, Barrie Maxey, Dennis Graham, and Sandy Hyppa
A. Call to Order
Chair Bruce Thompson thanked those attending noted a quorum was present and officially
called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.
B. Welcome by Superintendent Art Schmidt and Associate Superintendent Barrie
Maxey
Jill thanked Dennis Graham for his preparations and offer to host the Board meeting
and tour of the facility. Dennis introduced Superintendent Art Schmidt and Associate
Superintendent Barrie Maxey. Superintendent Art Schmidt welcomed the Board to the
facility and praises his staff for a job well done. Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Maxey
presented an in depth overview of the Green Hill School and answered the questions
of the board.
Green Hill is the first juvenile facility to develop industries into its program.
The 53 million-dollar state of the art facility has taken three years to reconstruct.
The emphasis is on teaching trades and social skills to juveniles who upon their
release will have the skills to establish healthy productive lives in their communities.
The program and housing were designed to accommodate the juveniles’ individual needs.
At this time housing consists of four living units. Each unit has four wings with
four to sixteen residents per wing for a total of 64 residents per unit. The current
population is 224 residents. Plans are available to modify and construct more housing
as population dictates to a total of 408 residents. The concept is to put individuals
into small groups give them direct supervision and a sense of social structure. This
provides constant reaffirmation and helps to build the juveniles self-esteem.
The program provides education with the option of pursuing a GED (which is encouraged),
a special services building which includes a job service center and full transitional
services to the community. Vocational training with several options to choose from is
also available. Class size averages eight to twelve students at a time. Participation in
these programs depends upon the juvenile’s individual plan.
Work opportunities include:
- Recycling Center (cardboard, aluminum, compost, kitchen waste)
- Commercial Laundry (for Green Hill and Maple Lane)
- Culinary Arts
- Wood
- Auto
- Welding
- Warehouse
- Cosmetology
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C. Tour of Green Hill School
Board meeting attendees broke into two groups and toured the facility with Mr.
Schmidt and Mr. Maxey.
D. Election of Officers
Bruce Thompson and Runette Mitchell previously agreed to run for chair and vice-chair
respectively. The floor was opened for nominations for both chair and vice chair
positions.Sheriff Garry Lucas was nominated on the floor for the second vice-chair
position. Nominations were called for three times before the floor closed. Nominees
became officers by acclamation.
E. Recognition of Outgoing Board Members
F. Approval of the Minutes: November 29, 1999 Board Meeting
A motion to approve the minutes was seconded. The motion carried.
G. Executive Director’s Report on Action Items and Activities
There was some discussion on items in Ms. Will’s report.
1998 Jail Work Report
Ms. Will gave an overview of the delivery of the 1998 Jail Work Report and advised
that there are still more copies available for distribution.
Jail Partnership Work
Jill Will and Andrea Bynum are serving on the WASPC Corrections Committee Working
Group on Jail Capacity and Standards. They will keep the Board informed on the committee
plans and their issues.
DOC Funding Clarification
Bruce Thompson spoke well of the meeting with Chair of the Correctional Industries
Board, David Burt, and Howard Yarbrough; Correctional Industries Administrator
regarding ways the two Boards could work more effectively together. They were also
able to resolve the budgetary issue of across-the-board salary increase for state employees.
PIECP Assessment Training
Doug Jacques commented that for the next five to six months auditors and monitors
would be out reviewing Class 1 Operations.
Clark County
Sheriff Lucas spoke of the grand opening being postponed to the second or third
week of March due to construction delays.
Skamania County Project
Spokane Geiger Corrections Project
Salmon Restoration Funds Follow Up
There has been good response on the salmon funding efforts. Jill is hoping to do a
presentation to the Salmon Funding Board. Dick Winn commented that Chelan County's
grant application is in. The chief of corrections has been unable to meet anyone up
to this time but in the next three to four weeks there will be more involvement.
Grants will be awarded in March and another release of applications will be offered
in June. Jill’s idea is to use inmate crews and get credit for their labor as a
local in-kind match. Dislocated workers could work as crew chiefs/supervisors.
H. Legislative Update
E SHB 2337 Bill - Jail Booking and Reporting System has passed, however, no money
has been allocated. WASPC will have to secure federal funds to implement the program.
There is no mandatory participation unless grant funds are attached to the project.
Two bills were introduced this session to limit Correctional Industries. The bills
died in committee, however, there will be an interim study on correctional industries.
Ms. Will questions whether or not the Board should participate. The consensus of the
Board was that Ms. Will should stay informed and participate based on how the committee
is formed.
Hertog v. City of
Seattle and King County
No legislative relief was provided.
I-695 Impacts
The Governor’s budget of $121 million was reduced to $85 million and has slipped
lower since then.“Not much out there.” The question is “How will we address legislation next year?”
I. JRA Youth Industries Update
Doug Jacques provided an update on youth industries.He and staff looked at potential
vendors of kits for wood file cabinets, wood bookcases, sled and stacking chairs.
Kits will be purchased in pallet quantities for Class II type operations.Class I
operations will have to wait until PIECP issues are resolved. In concept, youth
industries will come under JIB's certification.The Board could negotiate consultation
fees on a case by case basis if a lot of technical assistance is required. A draft
interagency agreement has been agreed to by form by the AG's office. A major outstanding
issue is L&I (workers compensation) coverage. CCH staff members are addressing
this issue with DSHS. Doug informed the Board that DSHS’s Assistant Secretary for
Juvenile Rehabilitation, Sid Sordiwitz, is retiring to start a new internet business.
Staff changes there should not affect plans for juvenile industries.
Announcements
There was discussion on the Jail Industries Association (JIA) becoming more closely
allied with the Correctional Industries Association (CIA). JIA is having trouble
maintaining operations on its own and the CIA is supportive of trying to help.
CIA will host a Correctional Industries Training meeting in November in Virginia.
Ken Bensimon attended a similar session in Houston and he strongly recommends other
Board members attend.
The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals Welfare to Work (WtW)
Workshop will be held on May 21-24, 2000.The training will include the new WtW
legislation and what we should expect from our private industry councils. Cost for
the workshop is $500.00. If interested in attending and need funding contact Tony Clarke
for help.
J. Board Recruitment
Ms. Will has made additional recruiting efforts to fill Board vacancies.The Executive
Director of the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, Ellen O’Brien
Saunders, will provide some leads on an educational representative. Ms. Will requested
feed back from the Board on other recruiting strategies. Discussion followed on
recruiting building trades contractors and labor representatives. At legislative
hearing this winter, business and labor expressed concern that inmates are taking
jobs. At the same hearing, however, the representative of the Associated General
Contractors (AGC) discussed a shortage of construction workers. This may give
the Board an opportunity for training and placement partnerships with unions and
contractors, and the Associated General Contractors. The key is to show how inmate
labor can help and not hurt them by providing a source of trained labor and access
to potential members. AGC has a broad view of industry needs and may be the best
potential partner. The Board should also look for linkages with those trades suffering
the biggest shortages and those that operate a hiring hall, i.e. the Laborers Union.
Additional information on labor market projections should be found from Employment
Security Department statistics.
Additional suggestions followed for potential business representatives to the Board.
In the past, links to insurance companies were mentioned since they pay losses
suffered by crime victims.Banking was another possibility mentioned.Major employers
such as Washington Mutual, Washington State Employees Credit Union, Boeing, and
Microsoft were discussed.
K. Appointment of Standing Committee on PIECP Review
Board policy requires a standing committee be appointed to review Prison Industries
Enhancement Certification applications. The Chair asked for volunteers to fill the
necessary slots.
The committee was formed as follows:
Bruce Thompson, Business Representative
Anton Jones, Labor Representative
Runette Mitchell, Jails Representative
Garry Lucas, Board Executive Committee Representative
Doug Jacques, Board At-Large Representative
Dick Winn will also serve on the committee as an observer.
L. Appointment of Ad Hoc Committee on FY 2002 - 2003 Budget Planning
In March planning will begin for the next state budget cycle.The Board needs to
decide how to request funding for the 2002-2003 period. Ms. Will requested that
a committee be formed to examine the options and report at the next Board meeting.
A committee was formed as follows:
Ken Bensimon
Ted Rutt
Andrea Bynum
Bob Neri (CCH fiscal staff)
M. Other Business
Ms. Will addressed the issue of developing a Jail Industries Board web site. Chair
Bruce Thompson expressed support for the concept. Initial research indicates up
front investment costs could be between $1500.00 – $5000.00. Things to be considered in
the development process include: is it better to hire out or not, who will perform
ongoing maintenance and updates, what can we budget for the web site, what will the
Web Site accomplish, and what server should be used?Help with these questions could
be found through Correctional Industries at Cedar Creek, or at the Twin Rivers or
Airway Heights correctional education programs. If the site were developed as an
inmate project, it would need professional review for security reasons. A web site
committee was established as follows to do further research and make recommendations
to the Board.
The committee was formed as follows:
Howard Patshkowski, CCH computer staff
Chuck Gray, Pierce County Clerk's Office
Bruce Thompson, Board.
N. Adjournment
There was a motion to adjourn, which was seconded.
Chair Bruce Thompson adjourned the meeting at 2:35PM.
June 2000 Minutes
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