COLVILLE, Wash. – Stevens County isn’t large, but it does have an outsized prison population. A new anti-recidivism partnership between the county library system and jail aims to address the needs of people leaving incarceration.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, Stevens County has the tenth highest county prison population per 100,000 residents in Washington, with 243 people per 100,000 sitting behind bars.
King County, the most populous area in the Evergreen State, incarcerates 135 residents per 100,000.
The new partnership between Stevens County Jail, Molina Healthcare WA and the Libraries of Stevens County will offer 10 laptop kits to recently released residents which the partnership says will include telehealth and job search resources.
The partnership did not offer specific details on how long the kits could be checked out, but did say that the library system would also offer additional internet and job skills training resources to those reentering the general population.
