WY Halfway House Plans Stopped
The Casper City Council punted plans to allow a federal halfway house in downtown Casper in the face of stiff opposition from business and property owners. Western Alternative Corrections planned to bid on a federal contract to house 45 prisoners in a residential facility, providing transitional re-entry services to convicts from a building on the 200 block of North Wolcott Street. News from the Star-Tribune.
The question before the council was not whether to allow the facility — Western Alternative only needed a change to zoning rules to allow for a re-entry facility somewhere in the city limits. The property on Wolcott is zoned for business use, and there aren’t other areas in the city zoned to allow a re-entry facility.
The City Council could have accommodated the company — either by deciding whether the Old Yellowstone District zoning allowed for a re-entry facility or pushing an ordinance through with an emergency vote.
Western Alternative operates a similar facility in Hastings, Neb. In Casper, those services are provided by Community Alternatives of Casper, which provides re-entry services to federal, state and local prisoners in a 400-bed facility nine miles from downtown.
Bids for the federal contract are due in early June and require companies seeking the contract to obtain the proper building and zoning permission for wherever they want to locate. Any city zoning change that follows normal channels — approval at a planning and zoning meeting and three votes by the City Council — wouldn’t take effect until mid August.
“If we don’t already have a zone and it takes until August, it’s probably too late,” said Casper Mayor Bill Brauer. “It seems that’s where we are.”
The federal contract with CAC, which is set to expire in September, could be extended six months if the Federal Bureau of Prisons is in a “procurement process,” according to Kristin Brown, deputy chief of the Community Corrections and Detention Services branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Opposition
“My vision of downtown is bringing people in, living downtown, vibrancy and business and it doesn’t feel like a good fit,” said Ward 3 Councilwoman Kenyne Schlager, before asking Michelle Hultine, president of Western Alternative Corrections, what she thought of operating from a building on the Life Steps Campus about two miles from downtown.“That would be marvelous — there are tremendous resources on that hill we could tie into,” she said. “I don’t think we’d be welcome neighbors out there either. You’re bringing in kids and the thought of having federal offenders there is not a good thing.”
“I’m imagining a big outcry if you come downtown,” said Ward 1 Councilwoman Kate Sarosy , directing her question to Hultine. “Did you run into that in Hastings and how did you counter that?”
Hultine said the company’s Hastings facility, located a few blocks from a hospital and across the street from a train station, hasn’t drawn the ire of local businesses.
Sarosy, Schlager and other council members received complaints Monday from business and property owners.
“I understand the need for these types of facilities; however I do not believe this will be an appropriate location. It definitely does not fit any type of marketing plan for downtown shoppers that I can think of,” Mike Stepp, president of Donnells Candies, wrote in an e-mail. ” …I think we should talk to our congressional delegation as well as City Council members as this appears to be something that the feds want to shove down our throats.”
Andrew and Lindsey Burgess also e-mailed the Ward 1 City Council members. “We believe that these facilities do play a critical role in the rehabilitation of prisoners however, we do not feel that downtown Casper is the proper place for them. We think that the council would be taking a step backward with the development of the downtown economy by placing this facility within city limits,” they wrote. “We hope that the council chooses not to support the request to rezone the building and encourages [WAC] to seek a less populated area for their facility.”
‘A very responsible company’
Hultine said during the meeting that residents of the facility would be free to come and go — there would be no bars on the doors or razor wire fencing. Leaving the facility without permission means a federal warrant, she said, which is a pretty strong incentive to convicts living halfway between prison and freedom.“The nice thing about working with the Federal Bureau of Prisons is they’re extremely responsive. If someone messes up, there’s no grey area,” she said. “My residents have never been accused of robbery or other misgivings in Hastings.”
Hultine also said the people she houses pay 25 percent of their income for housing and are required to work. The hospital in Hastings has employed many of her residents, she said.
“They’re a very responsible company,” said Hastings Police Chief Larry Thoren. “It’s like any other group you deal with — periodically some problems do arise and they get addressed. We’ve had very few calls there.”
Moving forward
Opposition to facilities in Casper housing poor people or convicted criminals is not new. Earlier this year, Paradise Valley residents expressed outrage at the prospect of a church helping convicts in a residential neighborhood. Though the church had a legal right to the area, it opted to move out of the neighborhood shortly after a public meeting drew shouts from angry residents.Opposition to the Wyoming National Apartments, a low-income housing complex in downtown Casper, was also fierce. The city voted 5-4 in November 2005 to sell the vacant building despite concerns about the building’s historical integrity and concerns about low-income families living downtown. City officials have since heaped praise on that building’s developer.
“I think the council needs to be aware of the evolving needs and be responsive when issues come up,” Schlager said. “My gut feeling is — I want more information and research and I want to know what the implications are of making some of these changes. I want to know how it fits into the long-term plan.”
City Attorney Bill Luben told the council that at some point it would have to carve a section of the zoning regulations to allow for a re-entry facility.
“You do need a place for them to go. If you don’t have a place for them to go, you inversely zoned them out of the community,” he said. “You ultimately need to establish a zone.”
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