CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Not in My Backyard
A group home for recently released prisoners was kicked out of the Westview neighborhood; here’s why that’s bad for recidivism BY DEANNA PAN
T
wo weeks after they moved in, they were gone. A day later, on a hot Friday afternoon, Terri Mayer walks through the house at 5803 North Drumheller Street. It’s virtually empty now, save for a few bananas in the fridge, clean sheets in the washing machine and various pieces of furniture, stripped bare and wiped clean, throughout each of its seven bedrooms. Mayer is the executive director of Open Gate, a local nonprofit that provides reentry services — including transitional housing like this facility was two weeks ago — to recently released prisoners. Earlier that week, a flyer circulated around the Westview neighborhood, alerting the residents about the house at 5803 North Drumheller. “Every one of those residents are convicted felons,” it read in bold, black letters. “Hopefully you are as concerned as we are.” The story spread across local TV news. Neighbors said they had been blindsided by a recent influx of felons, living blocks away from Westview Elementary School, threatening their children’s safety and deflating home values. They came together at Shadle Park on a Wednesday evening in protest. Mayer stood before a crowd of more than 100 people beneath a gazebo. She could hardly get a word out over the heckling: “What about our property values? ... Would you want them in your neighborhood? … They deserve nothing! They’re criminals!” A couple of the house’s residents told Mayer they had been followed, and at that point, she was worried about their safety. So they backed down. In her office downtown, Mayer shakes her head and blinks back tears. “It was unbelievable. It broke my heart,” Mayer says. “It’s unfortunate that people get branded with a felony, and it’s kind of like a lifetime sentence for them, and it shouldn’t be.”
M
Garnet Smith was one of seven felons in Open Gate’s Westview group home before neighbors pressured them to leave. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
ayer and her son started Open Gate in 2010. Her son, an inmate at Airway Heights Corrections Center, was sentenced to 15 years for first-degree manslaughter after accidentally shooting one of his best friends, Mayer says. He’s set to be released this month. For more than a decade, Mayer and her son watched men leave prison only to return later. “[When they’re released,] they have nothing. They’re basically just given $40, a bus pass to Spokane and told, ‘Figure it out,’” Mayer says. “They don’t have anyplace to go for the most part.” That’s where Open Gate comes in. Mayer works with the prisons to create release plans for her clients. She helps them apply for food stamps and Social Security. On the day of their release, Open Gate volunteers pick them up from Airway Heights or a bus ...continued on next page
MAY 8, 2014 INLANDER 13