Inside an unassuming blue house in the Sehome neighborhood, residents play chess, look for jobs and rebuild family relationships. Some people in the house are trained in first aid and have jumped to help victims of car crashes at the busy intersection nearby.
Anyone passing on the street would not know that the home is technically considered a minimum security state corrections facility.
The Bellingham Reentry Center has been serving as a transition house for incarcerated people finishing up the last bit of their prison sentence since 1976, and since 1981 at its Garden Street address. The facility is the only reentry center north of Seattle. While housed there, residents work on finding jobs for when they exit incarceration, receive drug dependency treatment and learn how to reenter life after a lengthy prison sentence.
“We have been operating very safely without incident,” said Vicky Neufeld, who spoke to Cascadia Daily News as a private citizen. Neufeld manages the center and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the state Department of Corrections.
But residents may be forced to leave the facility later this year because of a proposal made in Olympia by the former governor.
In his 2025–27 state budget recommendation, Gov. Jay Inslee recommended shutting down the facility as the state faces a looming $12 billion deficit over the next four years. The Bellingham facility isn’t the only reentry center on the chopping block: the Ahtanum View Reentry Center in Yakima was also recommended for closure.
But those on the ground like Neufeld say the budget savings are putting a vulnerable population at risk.
“We’re dealing with a high-risk population,” Neufeld said. “We’re dealing with felons with pretty extensive histories … they’re down for so long, they need a supportive time where we’re monitoring them and where they can learn to be in society again.”
That can include teaching someone how to use a smartphone or how to apply for jobs online, something they may have missed out on if they started their prison sentence decades ago.
Programs can lower recidivism
As soon as someone exits prison, they face an uphill battle trying to find a job, find a place to sleep and re-establish family ties. In a federal study, 68% of formerly incarcerated people are re-arrested within three years of exiting prison.
Reentry programs, like the 11 reentry facilities the Department of Corrections (DOC) in the state offers, can help lower the recidivism rate significantly by providing those exiting incarceration, according to the Institute for Child and Family Well-being at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
In an email to CDN, the state’s Office of Financial Management said changes to the prison population because of sentencing reform measures, as well as court decisions, had led to the 11 reentry facilities operating at 50% below capacity. The governor’s budget proposal is published through OFM.
The Bellingham facility was identified by DOC as an under-used facility and a privately owned building that could be closed to “right-size” the reentry center portfolio with needed capacity, available resources and maintain geographic coverage of centers across the state.
A spokesperson from DOC said the agency typically doesn’t comment on pending budget issues during the legislative session, adding it was aware the closure was recommended in the governor’s budget. But they added, “It will still be several months before we know for certain whether or not” the reentry center will close.
An online petition to keep the reentry center from shuttering has 371 signatures.
According to a fact sheet provided by DOC about the Bellingham Reentry Center in 2024, the facility’s annual operating budget is just shy of $3 million and it has the capacity to house up to 50 incarcerated people: 42 men and eight women. Residents who meet department criteria for being placed in a reentry center can be transferred to the house 12 months before their earliest release date.
Jim Furchert, a member of the Washington Federation of State Employees, the labor union representing state corrections workers, explained residents in reentry centers are still technically serving their prison sentences. The centers provide a structured environment, including regular drug tests and expectations.
He called the closure recommendation short-sighted, with criminal cases from the COVID-19 pandemic still being processed through the court system.
“In the next two to three years, when those courts are caught up and we have these people coming out of prison and they’re staying in prison because we don’t have other places to put them, then we’re going to be reopening reentry centers,” Furchert said.
“[The state] will save a couple dollars this year, everyone will be excited. Then in two years, when we’ve suddenly got bills to reintroduce them, then we have to retrofit buildings, we’ve got to rehire staff, we’ve got to retrain people.”
Previously faced closure
This isn’t the first time the Bellingham Reentry Center has faced closure. The facility temporarily closed in 2022 after its independent contractor couldn’t afford to operate anymore. DOC took over the facility in 2023 and it reopened in April 2024.
During the closure, residents were taken to the Reynolds Reentry Center in Seattle.
Neufeld took issue with the idea that the reentry center is underutilized, saying that prior to its closure in 2022, it had a waitlist of 80 to 120 people.
“We never had a problem filling our beds,” she said.
For Long Nguyen, who works at the reentry facility but spoke to CDN as a private citizen, the reentry centers allow residents to return to a normalized environment after spending decades in an environment of incarceration. He likened the house to a college dorm.
That normalized environment can include hosting a chess tournament for residents and staff in late January. Staff also learn about positive updates when residents get jobs or finish resumes, and they also hear about challenges residents face such as when they lose a loved one.
“We hear their life and we see their life,” he said. “It’s very important to keep this facility.”
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
