Inslee sends prison staff to juvenile detention facility to help deal with overcrowding

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has directed the Department of Corrections to send staff to Green Hill School in Chehalis as the juvenile detention facility faces safety issues resulting from overcrowding.

The Department of Children, Youth and Families announced Inslee’s directive on Aug. 13. It followed the agency’s July 8 decision to suspend intakes at its two juvenile detention centers, leaving convicted youths in county jails. That decision was overturned in an agreement between Washington’s counties and the state agency on Aug. 9 after the counties sued.

“We cannot focus on rehabilitation without first ensuring safety,” said the agency’s director, Ross Hunter. “Additional staffing and collaboration benefit young people and staff, by supporting our ongoing security efforts and helping us resume programs and treatment for young people at GHS.”

Hunter faced calls to step down from state lawmakers and Washington’s juvenile justice advisory council amid the issues at Green Hill. In an interview with FOX 13, he shifted blame to other entities for “failing to accurately predict” the number of youths that would be sent to his agency’s facilities, but admitted that he failed to warn counties of his subsequent moves.

While the department’s initial announcement said there would be 10 Department of Corrections staff members sent to Green Hill, a Department of Children, Youth and Families spokesperson, Nancy Gutierrez, told the Standard on Aug. 27 that 20 adult corrections staff are working at the facility.

“The Department of Corrections brings a unique skill set and is doing an excellent job,” said Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the governor’s office. “They are present solely to provide support to DCYF for the safety of everyone at Green Hill. This has helped to resume a number of activities that weren’t possible before.”

This is the first time the Department of Corrections and the Department of Children, Youth and Families have entered an agreement known as “unified command,” said Gutierrez.

A “unified command” is what the state calls it when “multiple agencies come together to respond to emergency situations,” according to an Aug. 16 letter sent to Green Hill School staff and residents by Felice Upton, the agency’s juvenile rehabilitation assistant secretary.

“DOC is involved because they have a team of nationally trained and credentialed incident and significant event managers,” Upton’s letter reads. “This team provides support across the state and country to other agencies and is widely respected for its expertise.”

Chanel Rhymes, a criminal justice advocate whose son is in custody at Green Hill, said she has mixed feelings about Department of Corrections staff arriving at the facility.

“It feels like the staff at Green Hill specifically is very young and does not have a lot of experience,” Rhymes said. “In a sense, having people from DOC – if they’re coming in to show them basic ‘how to operate a facility,’ it’s kind of like, okay, good.”

“But then on the flip side, this is DOC,” Rhymes said. “They’re used to dealing with adults. This is supposed to be a different form of incarceration. So are they equipped to be dealing with youth?”

Upton said the Department of Corrections staff are not there to run Green Hill, but have arrived “on a temporary basis to collaborate with DCYF on our shared mission to enhance the safety and security.”

Gutierrez said the Department of Corrections staff will assist with contraband searches and “organized, safe movements of residents.”

“This past week, their focus was cleanliness,” Upton’s mid-August letter said about the unified command. “We are so pleased to already see one additional success from this week with the return to using the cafeteria for meals starting this evening.”

Upton’s letter said residents previously had not been able to use the cafeteria for four years. Gutierrez did not immediately respond to questions about the cafeteria closure.

Rhymes said the cafeteria closure was shocking to her. She was under the impression her son was able to use the cafeteria, as it is open during family visitation events, like for Christmas. She’s been having difficulty getting in contact with her son, she said, as the facility appears to still largely be in lockdown due to the crowding issues.

“They are not able to get out of their cells and have programming, education,” Rhymes said. “This is the time in their lives where they’re supposed to be going to college or learning some sort of skill so they can be productive citizens, and we’re damaging them.”

Rhymes said her son was able to call her for the first time in a week Tuesday night and told her it was the only time he had been out of his cell all day.

“We know that current conditions are challenging and will take time to resolve,” Upton’s letter said. “We have teams actively exploring options for reducing the overcrowding at GHS and are collaborating with legislators on resources for additional facilities. Until we have more space to accommodate more people, safety issues will persist and access to services will be limited.”