Washington State Democrats created a budget crisis with out-of-control spending that created a $16 billion deficit. Now, they’re using that crisis to shut down Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women (MCCCW) as part of their agenda to depopulate prisons and keep criminals out of a criminal justice system they view as systemically racist.
Then-governor Jay Inslee prepared a 2025-2027 budget proposal knowing that there would need to be steep cuts to make up for the budget deficit he oversaw. He asked state agencies to provide suggestions on what to cut. The Washington Department of Corrections (WADOC) suggested the state close Mission Creek. That position was later adopted by Governor Bob Ferguson, according to WADOC. It would save $16.2 million this biennium.
But the effort is not with fiscal responsibility. After all, Democrats have decried the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for cost-cutting efforts at federal agencies. There’s been a larger effort since the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 to intentionally depopulate prisons.
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Why are Democrats trying to close another prison? To keep criminals out of jail
Why is Mission Creek up for closure? Declining admissions. As of December 2024, it is operating at 55% capacity, with only 177 of 321 beds occupied.
Though Washington Democrats, and the WADOC under Inslee, pretended we’re either seeing a reduction in crime or more success “due to intervention, diversion, treatment, and re-entry programs.”
In 2023, while the state was experiencing a surge in crime, especially with repeat offenders, then-WADOC Secretary Cheryl Strange bragged that Washington has “one of the lowest rates of incarceration in the nation.” She attributed this to having “worked diligently to lower recidivism rates, create better neighbors and ensure that incarcerated individuals don’t return to us once they get out.” It’s why they closed the Larch Corrections Center in Clark County, which they lauded as a cost-saving measure.
But that was verifiably false.
As Washington prisons closed and criminals avoided jail, crime skyrocketed
By February of 2024, the Washington prison population was down 30% since 2017. That timeline coincided with a striking surge in crime, though Democrats and many of their allies in the media pretended otherwise or blamed COVID. Some of the numbers were a result of the bizarre State Supreme Court decision to deem a felony drug possession law as unconstitutional, followed by two years of statewide drug decriminalization.
In 2023, Washington experienced a significant increase in violent crimes compared to the national average. FBI data revealed that murders were 408% higher than the national average, vehicle thefts were up by 144%, and aggravated assaults increased by 27.3% since 2019
Washington Democrats said jail doesn’t work
Washington Democrats adopted a strategy to decarcerate under the claim that the system is racist and jail is not rehabilitative.
Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-Bow) supported House Bill 1274, which reduced sentences for individuals whose juvenile offenses were factored into their adult sentencing. Meaning, adult criminals who were also juvenile criminals. The impetus for the bill was the claim that “black, indigenous, and people of color are disproportionately impacted by prior juvenile felony adjudications.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Tarra Simmons (D-Bremerton) used COVID to explicitly lobby “to reduce the number of people that are currently in prison. We absolutely need to address the number of people we have in prisons and decarcerate our state prison system.”
She framed this reform as part of a restorative justice approach, stating:
“Reducing sentences for violent felons isn’t just about giving criminals another chance—it’s somehow a path for victims to ‘heal.’”
Jail can and does work
The WADOC said that Mission Creek has been rehabilitative, calling it “an important institution.”
“It opened in 2005, and they’ve built a reputation for rehabilitative programming and a less intense setting as a minimum-security site,” a WADOC spokesperson explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “They do some fantastic sustainability work, pet programs, SUD therapy, trades apprenticeships. The staff there have fostered a healthy environment, and that can help turn lives around. A good prison is one where very few of those released come back.”
So why does it seem likely that it will close? Simple: when Democrats see an opportunity to shut something down, a decision driven by ideology, they’ll take it—especially if it involves being soft on crime. First, they create the illusion that prison beds are empty because crime is magically down (spoiler: it’s not). They achieve this by decriminalizing everything short of murder and electing judges who treat accountability like a hate crime. Then, when the budget collapses under their own mismanagement, they pretend closing a “mostly empty” prison is just good fiscal sense. It’s not. It’s sabotage dressed up as savings.
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