On Thursday, a group of Spokane community leaders will reveal what they call their “road map for safer and healthier communities.”
The proposal from the Safe and Healthy Task Force may recommend the county ask the public for money to build new correctional facilities. Voters said no to a jail ballot measure in 2023. How do they feel about it now?
Some who are not part of the task force discussions have begun to do their homework in anticipation of another public vote. That includes touring the county's criminal justice, substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities.
In a conference room at the Jail, Jail Chief Donald Hooper and Lieutenant Aaron Anderton greet members of a tour group.
The entourage includes the president of Visit Spokane, the co-owner of several restaurants, a prominent retired realtor and a city council member. They’re here for a first-hand look at this 40-year-old facility that’s showing its age. It’s not only a place where people eat and sleep and spend hours of time in their cells, it’s also a medical clinic that cares for hundreds of people. And, says Hooper, it’s a place with a metaphorical revolving door. Lots of people come and go, nearly 50 a day.
“Every day. Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July, Mother’s Day. And it’s morning, noon and night. Just the scope…how do you arrange services for 49 people? There are not enough service providers in the community," Hooper said.
Some inmates are arrested for offenses committed in downtown Spokane. The talk turns to the public’s frustrations about people who openly use drugs and camp near downtown streets, alleys and businesses.
“When city council said there’s no taking anybody to jail without services, that exploded the problem downtown. I mean, absolutely exploded it from people everywhere, trash everywhere, paraphernalia everywhere, feces everywhere. All of it, everywhere. It was like a war zone downtown when you would arrive in the morning. You would never know what you’re dealing with," said Robin Bernhart, the managing partner and co-owner of Landmark Restaurants, which owns Frank's Diner and The Onion.
That was one of the main scenarios that led to the creation of the Safe and Healthy Task Force that will announce its recommendations on Thursday.
Most or all of the members of this tour group are not part of the task force, but are people with the ability to influence others when it comes to a ballot measure.
Hooper and Anderton take the group upstairs to the various units, where the most serious offenders live or where people with medical needs stay, when out of the blue, a female inmates unleashes a loud, piercing scream. Officers says this is not an unusual occurrence in a place with people with mental health issues.
The group also toured the 70-year-old Geiger Correctional Facility, a former military base-turned-minimum security facility on the West Plains. It stopped by the county’s Human Services Stabilization center near the jail, where Victoria Neumiller from Pioneer Health Services says people with addictions are triaged and cared for.
“What we do is, after the first 24 or 48 hours, then they are prescribed suboxone and they can get [another] shot while they’re here, which is a long-acting form of that," she said.
After the tours, Robin Bernhart says she was impressed by the dedication of the people who work in the jail and the stabilization center. She hopes that the task force recommendations will address not only the incarceration side, but the human services challenges too.
“I do think that we have a health problem here. And watching what I see here today, I think that my impression of what I thought somebody in jail was versus what somebody in jail is has changed from the perspective of mental health. I don't think anybody chooses this. They don't choose this. They don't choose I'm just going to be a jackass one day and I'm going to end up in jail and then I'm going to get out," she said.
When asked for a moment of the tours that stood out, Councilwoman Kate Telis remembered the woman in the jail and the blood-curdling scream.
“It was, quite honestly, scary, but also really sad for me because it just showed the level of mental health crisis we have in our community. Those people need so much more than a jail," she said.
Telis hopes the community dialogue that will follow the task force recommendation will take into account the complexity of the issue.
“I think sometimes the jail conversation becomes, ‘Oh, I’m against a jail because I don’t want more jail beds’ or ‘Oh, I’m for a jail because I do want more jail beds’ and I think it’s so much more than that," she said.
The task force will announce its recommendations Thursday at 1 at CHAS Health.
