Port of Hope drug treatment program plans move to Post Falls
POST FALLS — The Port of Hope has applied for a special-use permit to operate its federal residential reentry program in Post Falls.
According to Carlos Solorza, the Port of Hope is contracted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide the reentry program in Kootenai County.
If approved, the 30-plus bed facility will be located in an existing building at the end of the cul de sac at 1007 N. Boulder Court.
“We are going into an existing building in a commercial industrial zone,” Solorza said, adding the company took care to find a property that will have minimal impact on the community.
The Port of Hope will continue to operate its 24-bed drug treatment center at its current location at 218 N. 23rd St. in Coeur d’Alene.
Two years ago, the city of Coeur d’Alene discovered that Port of Hope was operating its residential reentry program out of its treatment center location without the proper permits. After several public meetings concerning the matter, the Coeur d’Alene City Council granted the Port a two-year special use permit to give it time to find a more suitable location.
The reentry program is for helping federal prisoners who are nearing the end of their sentences develop necessary life skills that will aid their transition back into society.
Solorza said the prisoners will receive help finding a job and budgeting money. They will also receive assistance in finding housing and acquiring transportation.
“We provide them with a place to stay and the skills they need to make the transition back to society,” he said.
While the Post Falls location will not be a lockdown facility, Solorza said, the inmates will not have access to come and go as they please. He said the typical length of time an inmate stays in the program can vary from three months to a year depending on circumstances, and the inmates who are eligible for the program in Post Falls must have some form of local tie to North Idaho.
“Most of them are from the area,” he said, but added some of them may have been from out of state, but committed their crimes in North Idaho.
The city of Post Falls will hold a Planning Commission Public Hearing on the project at 6 p.m., Oct. 13.
Written comments will be accepted until Oct. 5, and anyone wishing to provide materials or a presentation at the hearing must get those materials to the city planning department by Oct. 5 in order to be included in the city’s staff report to the commission.
If the permit is approved, Solorza said the Port of Hope will begin remodeling the facility on Boulder Court right away. The agency has a March 1, 2016, deadline to move its reentry program from its treatment center.