I’m no public funding expert, and realize all sorts of government departments have their own sacrosanct budgets to spend, but we’ve got potholes to fix, schools to repair and bus routes to operate. Yet, we somehow find $100,000 in public funds to spend on a McNeil Island usage study, the result of which is to state the obvious! No doubt saving $100,000 is immaterial to solving our overarching fiscal challenges, but seeing monies spent in this way leaves me wondering if there really is any institutional will, or ability, to solve our budget problems.

I couldn’t agree more with the headline’s sentiment. However, it does not naturally follow for me that even if we did manage to drive their defense costs down substantially, it would make any more sense to keep those 284 sexual predators on McNeil Island than it did to keep the near thousand regular run-of-the-mill state prisoners there once upon a time.

After all, the only reason we ever moved all those predators onto McNeil Island in the 1990s was because we already had a small army of state correctional personal there watching magnitudes more of ordinary state prisoners, right?

Well, those state prisoners and their keepers are all gone now. Sorry, predators, but your tickets to paradise have now effectively expired. You all must go, too.

In June 2015, the eyes of the world will look in high-definition awe and wonder upon the spectacular natural splendor of the South Sound when we host the U.S. Open at the Chambers Bay Golf Course.

What will we showcase to the millions of viewers when the TV cameras pan westward? McNeil Island, paradise extraordinaire for psychopathic sexual predators? Or perhaps a world-class regional cultural center inside a picturesque national park, lovingly kissed by an unending series of gentle wavelets along an extensive pristine pebbly shoreline, dedicated to honoring the noble and unique past of both our pioneer and native peoples?

Let’s choose wisely.

The article outlines the state’s plans to move the Special Commitment Center to save money. But the options suggested by the state do not make financial sense.

I had the opportunity to tour McNeil Island and some of its facilities the day before the state prison was closed. We drove by the SCC.

Most communities will not welcome the opportunity to have 300 sex offenders in their backyard, and the state will spend a lot of money searching for a suitable new location. The SCC is a very well-maintained facility and should stay on McNeil.

To save money the state should consider selling the large boat that is so expensive to run and replace it with a smaller boat or two. The state should also allow SCC employees to occupy the houses that prison employees lived in. The majority of the housing stock is in excellent condition.

The presence of employees and their families will create security on the island and save on transportation costs which appear to be the biggest issues for the state. If a few additional security officers or other workers are needed, spouses of SCC employees living on the island could be hired – again saving transportation costs and reducing the need for 23 additional security officers in 2012.

The state wasted a lot of money when it closed the prison on McNeil. It should not be allowed to make the same mistake with the SCC.

The article was about possibly moving the Special Commitment Center from McNeil Island to the mainland.

My problem with this article is not the move itself, but the fact that you describe the prisoners as  “those deemed so dangerous the courts have confined them even though their prison sentences are over.”

What happened to the prisoners’ rights? If their prison sentences is over, then why are they still being confined? What happened to rehabilitation? Are we just locking people up now and throwing away the key without even trying to rehabilitate them and committing them without thinking about their basic right of freedom?

People assume that sex offenders are beyond help, but really what they need most is rehabilitation and a chance to be integrated back into society. When did prisons become a dumping ground for sex offenders?

What we need if we are to close the McNeil Island SCC is the creation of a program that focuses on rehabilitation and treatment for convicted sex offenders. If we want to make up the deficit of the budget, then why are we not focusing on rehabilitation, which has been proven time and time again will lower the lifetime cost of a felon because of the lower recidivism rate once the offenders has been in treatment?

Prison is not and should never be a dumping ground for our most violent offenders. We need to focus on treatment for prisoners.

Again and again we see McNeil Island siphoning off more money, even though the prison closure was supposed to save state taxpayers money. Yet the state decides to spend $6 million for an “already-planned” project to bury some power cables to “enhance security” at the Special Commitment Center during power outages.

Has the state ever thought about rethinking projects? Has the state ever heard about backup generators?

I did some quick research on heavy-duty generators and found a 320KW Industrial Standby generator for $134,625 and a 1,000-gallon-capacity fuel tank for $9,279. With this setup you can run the generator for 46.5 hours – enough time to get a power crew out to fix the outage and still keep the sex-offender unit operational.

Alas, too late for this one, but I challenge our state government to really start thinking before acting. I think the time-worn phrase is “thinking outside of the box.”

Oh wait. I forgot the Legislature just killed the State Productivity Rewards Program that inspires such approaches. Ah, yes. Why do things right when you can do them wrong?

With a bridge from the Key Peninsula to the island, it could become another Fox Island and increase the tax base for Pierce County for many decades to come.

Have we so quickly forgotten about the troubles with vandalism and squatters at the old Western State Hospital buildings? Am I the only one who recalls those news stories?

We will see this cycle: crime, drugs and squatters, followed by lawsuits for injuries and creating an attractive nuisance. Then will come the EPA-forced cleanup of the rotting structures. Taxpayers pay for it all.

The article said it would cost $500,000 to keep those buildings in restorable condition. Our state can’t find anyone to lease those buildings and site? There are no state programs that could use those structures? All we can do is let them decay?

If a private citizen abandoned something like that, the state would sue him. This is a huge waste of all the taxpayer money that went into building those structures and roads.

Here’s one idea, just off the top of my head: We just renewed the tax incentive for films and movie making in our state. Make any and all film studios a sweet deal on using those structures as long as they maintain them.

It’s a beautiful island with many possible settings for film. Turn McNeil into the Studio City of the Northwest and start a new industry here.

Anything is better than turning it over to decay and crime.

Several experts have told our Legislature that closing McNeil Island Corrections Center will cost more than it saves, yet the closure is happening anyway. The money saved by one state agency (Department of Corrections) will be transferred to another (Department of Social and Health Services) as it cover the services at the Special Commitment Center currently provided by corrections center inmates.

We all know that when all is said and done the closure will cost more than the savings; it always does. Where will the needed money come from? Where it always does – education.

Our legislators will reduce the number of teachers, close schools, cut necessary school programs and force our kids to be educated 40 to a classroom with substandard educational materials. Then our legislators will place the blame for lack of student progress on the teachers – as always.

But what does it matter? The budget deficit will be reduced by $12 million. Or will it?

It will cost the SCC $5.6 million more to offset the contribution the inmates provided? Absurd.

Of course it will cost money to send the 286 SCC people to a land facility, but in the end it will save more money to shut down the entire island. It’s time that our state looked at total costs and stopped the half-minded decisions.