State Spent $34K on Flight for Prisoners in 2014

OLYMPIA (AP) — Washington state's corrections department has been shuttling prisoners back to the state on airplanes routinely used by Gov. Jay Inslee. The King Air trips have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

The News Tribune reported Sunday that records show the state used its two State Patrol planes nine times to transport 14 inmates from January 2013 to September 2016.

Some of the trips were to move problematic prisoners to out-of-state facilities, while other flights were dedicated to picking up probation violators who left the state.

The most expensive King Air flight was in 2014, when the state paid $34,000 to bring two probation violators back to Washington from Florida.

Corrections official David Flynn says transporting the prisoners, who have been deemed high-risk, on commercial flights would pose a danger to other passengers.