Fred Chang’s Newsclips

Dec 27 2003
By Elizabeth Williams

The Kitsap County Jail, located off Sidney Avenue in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood, releases 25 inmates a day. County corrections chief Larry Bertholf said 80 percent of those have friends or family waiting for them outside. Most of the rest have enough cash in their pockets to get out of town on their own.
But what about the rest?

Bertholf said only about 100 or 200 inmates out of 10,000 leave with nothing but the clothes over their backs. Those few, however, can become a real problem — and a source of fear for the neighbors. Over the past few months, several living in the vicinity of the jail have called police after prowlers and/or suspicious-looking men turned up in their front yards. Many believe the suspects are recent jail releasees.

“I’ve been asked directions to Poulsbo, and I know others have been asked for change,” said resident Fred Chang, who heads the Sidney-area neighborhood block watch. “It seems the county jail is releasing people without information as to their location or transit options.”

Bertholf said most of the suspicious characters are likely garden-variety transients and not in any way connected to the jail. He said all inmates are told upon release they will be immediately re-arrested if caught harassing or even knocking on the doors of Sidney-area residents. Bertholf said many of the reports on intruders did not correspond with recent releases, which made it even less likely that they were connected to the jail. Nevertheless, Bertholf admits it doesn’t take many incidents to make residents worry. “It only takes one or two to make it look like something really major,” he said.

Port Orchard is not an easy city to get out of when you’re broke. Bremerton takes either a ferry or a lot of walking to get to, and the nearest long-term services for indigents are in Seattle or Tacoma. Complicating matters, Port Orchard is also a popular destination for inmates released from state facilities in Mason County.

Tina Jeu, director of operations for Port Orchard’s St. Vincent de Paul, said she often sees former prison inmates who have walked or hitchhiked all the way up from Shelton. “They consider (Port Orchard) to be a bigger city than Shelton,” Jeu said. “They think there are more resources here.”

Although most local charities will offer a hot meal or a warm coat to ex-inmates in need, St. Vincent’s tries to bridge the gap between a one-night solution and a leg up to long-term help. The program isn’t well-known, but St. Vincent’s offers recent releasees a full range of assistance — anything from a place to stay the night to bus fare to a tank of gas. “One guy said he just wanted to stay in the streets, so we gave him a sleeping bag and tent,” Jeu said. “We can basically provide just about anything.”

The main difficulty is getting ex-inmates to St. Vincent’s. Bertolf said inmates are told about local charities, but wishes there was a way to bring the assistance to the jail itself. He said his preference would be a stack of transportation vouchers on the jail desk that could be handed to releasees as they leave. That way, he said, the inmates would have a straight shot down to the ferry and be on their way out of the city as quickly as possible.

“The trouble is, you’ve got to go over to St. Vincent de Paul to get the ferry fare,” Bertolf said. St. Vincent’s is located at the far end of Bay Street near the intersection of Bethel Avenue — several blocks beyond Sidney.

Chang’s neighborhood block group in the past approached Kitsap Transit about making bus and ferry vouchers available, but transit officials said such a program could be considered a gift of public funds — in other words, illegal.

Jeu said the best solution is just to promote St. Vincent’s more heavily. Because the charity can offer solutions to just about any problem — Jeu said she’s even handed out vouchers for back rent and utility bills — she believes it’s a better vehicle for getting former inmates real help, rather than just a ticket out of town. Many ex-convicts who appear at her door are in bad shape and struggling to provide even basic necessities for themselves, Jeu said. “The most important thing is food right away,” she explained. “Most of them are starving.”

Jeu said she sees about five former prisoners a month and believes there are many more out there. Most who come in seem to have heard about St. Vincent’s from other prisoners, not from any official sources. Jeu said she hopes Bertholf, in the future, will promote St. Vincent’s more heavily so no ex-prisoner has to spend cold, hungry nights on the streets.

“They’re just bumming and they don’t have to do that,” she said. “If we have it, we’ll give it to them.”

© Copyright 2005 Port Orchard Independent