Conditions at Green Hill juvenile lockup violate state law, court rules
Conditions at the state’s largest juvenile prison – where young people have been locked in cells for hours and left to urinate in plastic bottles – violate state law, the Washington Court of Appeals has ruled.
Conditions at the Green Hill School in Chehalis have been the subject of heightened concern for state leaders and those with loved ones at the medium-maximum security youth prison for over a year. Last summer, the Department of Children, Youth and Families transferred 43 men, without notice, from Green Hill to an adult prison. They were sent back after a judge found the move had violated a court-ordered settlement agreement. The overcrowding that led to the transfer was at the center of the battle before the Court of Appeals.
In a personal restraint petition filed with the court last year by the King County Department of Public Defense on behalf of two men who were imprisoned at Green Hill, attorneys argued that the lack of programming and lockdowns caused by staffing shortages violated state law and their Eighth Amendment rights prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. While the court denied the constitutional argument, it did rule that DCYF has been violating state law regarding juvenile rehabilitation: that room confinement should be as minimal as necessary and cannot be used to address overpopulation or understaffing.
The conditions at Green Hill violate state law, and DCYF must remedy the conditions,” the opinion states.
But, according to the opinion, those held at Green Hill were not denied “basic necessities of human dignity,” and therefore their constitutional rights were not violated.
The prison, which houses 17- to 25-year-olds, has been over capacity for more than a year, leading to disruptions in programming, amplified violent incidents and lockdowns. The department has admitted there are unsafe conditions, and lawyers conceded during arguments earlier this year that the room lockdowns violated state law.
One of the men who petitioned for release has since been transferred to an adult prison, and the other was transferred to a community facility and allegedly escaped before returning to Green Hill this month. The department tried to have the case dismissed because it was “moot,” it argued, but the court maintained the case raises “issues of continuing and substantial public interest.”
Washington law requires that juvenile offenders be provided treatment for rehabilitation and reintegration. Per state law, room confinement must usually be limited to no more than four hours a day. If a juvenile is in room confinement, they must be checked on every 15 minutes and have access to a toilet or sink at least hourly.
“DCYF cannot implement policies limiting the resident’s access to programming and claim it is because of safety and security concerns when it is DCYF’s own inability to resolve the issues of overpopulation and understaffing that gave rise to those concerns,” states the opinion, filed Monday and signed by three judges.
Katie Hurley, a King County public defender who represented the two young men, said the department must provide timely access to bathrooms and showers to comply with the ruling.
In a statement, DCYF spokesperson Nancy Gutierrez wrote that the department is analyzing the ruling and “considering the available paths forward” but otherwise cannot comment on active litigation.
During frequent lockdowns at the Green Hill School, people are confined to their rooms, sometimes for hours, according to court documents. The men and boys live in “dry cells,” meaning they have no toilet or running water and need to request staff let them out to go to the bathroom, the opinion states. Overcrowding and staffing shortages have led to hourslong waits: Residents have been given medical-grade urine bottles to use when staff cannot let them out in time, the opinion states.
One of the petitioners alleged that he went two weeks without receiving toothpaste and didn’t have a counseling session for two months.
Earlier this month, members of the Superior Court Judges’ Association wrote in a letter to the association president that, in several visits, they observed that those detained had no safe harbor from gang members in Green Hill; have to compete for “scarce resources” and that two or three people are often crammed into one-person cells for most of the day.
“As new offenders arrived, they are told by fellow inmates that they need to do ‘the work’ of fighting others or ferrying drugs within the facility – or their families ‘on the outside’ will suffer harm,” the judges wrote.
Correspondence between DCYF and Department of Corrections officials, obtained through a public records request by The Seattle Times, shows thorough planning before the transfer to the adult prison, and that officials expected the court would find it had violated the settlement. According to the emails, DCYF initially sought an emergency declaration from then-Gov. Jay Inslee concerning the crowding at Green Hill. The department ultimately elected to transfer the men without notice to them or many lawmakers.
“This is very confidential as you know. Tell no one,” Jennifer Redman, DCYF director of operations, safety and security, emailed DOC.
The department also considered asking the court for permission to move the residents, but decided against it out of fear that it would “risk an actual prison riot,” according to an email from then-DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter to staff. Inslee preferred that option, Hunter wrote, “because he has deep concerns about respecting the legitimacy of court orders and settlements.”
After the transfer, the state was criticized for formally closing the Naselle Youth Camp, another detention center for juveniles, in 2022.
“Re-open Naselle,” Hunter wrote in correspondence as a potential option after the transfer. “This sounds hard, very expensive, not secure, and nonstrategic, but hey … “
In June, DCYF opened a new facility in Aberdeen: Harbor Heights, consisting of two 24-bed units. The department plans to move 46 young men there from Green Hill by the end of fall.
A script provided in public records demonstrates the extent of communication residents received at the time of transfer: “(Resident’s Name), Green Hill School is transferring custody of you to the Department of Corrections. You are being transferred to the Department of Corrections today. Please follow their instructions.”
A risk-assessment draft filed by staff days before the transfer stated, “The risk associated with violating the settlement agreement pales in comparison to conditions being created due to the constraints of the inability to manage behavior and transfers under the settlement agreement.”
Last Friday, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Western District of Washington against former DCYF Secretary Hunter and former Green Hill superintendent Jason Aldana concerning the move of 43 men last year. A similar lawsuit was filed against the state in Superior Court.
The lawsuits allege that some residents’ personal property was destroyed in the transfer, including “letters and photographs from deceased family members, Native American honorary Eagle feathers, and relatives’ ashes that were maintained in an urn.”
Hunter, when reached by phone Tuesday, said he was not aware of the lawsuit. Aldana did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits allege that Green Hill staff retaliated against the men who were transferred back to the youth prison. Attorneys with the personal injury firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala filed the lawsuit, and it frequently also files suits alleging sexual abuse in youth detention.
Attorney Patrick A. Brown said the firm represented at least two of the individuals transferred in abuse cases against the state. Brown claimed the transfer may have been to “silence” those individuals, and said that he was temporarily prohibited from meeting with his clients in private at Green Hill after the move.
“Green Hill School now has this culture that has been so ingrained to just turn a blind eye or even tolerate the things that are going on, Brown said.