WA juvenile facility accused of forcing youths to ‘urinate in plastic containers’ in cells

Two young men who were housed at the Green Hill School juvenile detention center in Chehalis, Washington, claim they were left to urinate in plastic receptacles in their cells amid overcrowding.

The petitioners’ complaints were detailed in a case heard in late May before the Division 1 Court of Appeals in Seattle. Their legal team argued in the personal restraint petition that conditions at the facility – which is run by the Department of Children, Youth and Families – violate Washington state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Kate Benward with the King County Department of Public Defense told the three-judge panel that the youth were often confined to their cramped cells without being given regular bathroom access. They were “forced to urinate in plastic receptacles and use plastic bags, while also being deprived of social and educational programming,” she said.

One of the young men alleged in court documents that Green Hill residents are routinely supplied plastic urinal jugs and told to use them in their cells because of how long it takes to be let out for bathroom breaks.

“It is dehumanizing to urinate in a plastic container in my small cell in front of a cell mate,” he said in a declaration. “It makes me feel like an animal when I am forced to do this, or even less than an animal, since people at least let animals out of their cage to use the bathroom.”

State law allows young people sentenced in adult court for crimes committed before their 18th birthday to remain in juvenile rehabilitation until they turn 25.

One petitioner, whose 25th birthday is in July, has been transferred to the Department of Corrections to participate in graduated re-entry, a DOC spokesperson said via email, referring to a program that helps incarcerated people transition back to the community. The second petitioner escaped DCYF custody in March, court documents show.

As such, lawyers for the state contend that the case is moot because neither of those young men currently reside at Green Hill. They also say there’s no probability that they’ll return to the facility and the conditions alleged.

But the petitioners’ legal team disagrees. If the runaway were found and arrested, the argument goes, then he’d get shipped back to Green Hill and face the same conditions.

“We’re asking this court to prohibit his return until this court ensures that DCYF is actually complying with state law and the Constitution,” Benward said.

DCYF did not dispute at the hearing that it failed to provide hourly access to the bathroom in these cases in violation of state statute.

A DCYF spokesperson told McClatchy via email that the department is unable to comment on pending litigation.

Green Hill has announced a safe operational capacity of 180 youths but has reportedly grappled with overcrowding since mid-2023. In late April the facility counted an institutional population of 230, according to a department weekly snapshot.

Speaking on behalf of DCYF at the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Valore said many of the petitioners’ allegations are nearly a year old.

“And in that year’s time, the department has made significant steps to mitigate this process,” Valore said. “For one, it just received legislative funding to open a new facility.”

The new Harbor Heights juvenile detention center opened earlier this year on the grounds of an adult prison near Aberdeen. Eight Green Hill residents were transferred there to begin, according to the Washington State Standard. It’s expected to reach full capacity of 46 by the end of fall.

Failed juvenile-reform bills

Following a key legislative deadline in mid-April, more than two dozen Democrats in the state House of Representatives signed a letter addressed to constituents, community-justice advocates and the youth incarcerated at Green Hill. The lawmakers bemoaned the House’s failure to advance a bill aimed at preventing young people from getting ensnared in the system.

“For the young people trapped in a system that prioritizes incarceration over rehabilitation, this is more than a missed opportunity – it’s a moral failure,” the lawmakers wrote.

Senate Minority Leader John Braun, sponsor of another juvenile-reform bill that didn’t make it to the governor’s desk, said that House Democrats “fumbled a critical opportunity to alleviate dangerous overcrowding in Washington’s juvenile-justice facilities, leaving both residents and staff members in crisis.”

The Centralia Republican said in a news release that his bill would have given Green Hill and other facilities the necessary tools to relieve overcrowding.

He said problems at Green Hill have included riots, drug smuggling, assaults and overdoses, and that the environment also endangers staff.

Braun said he’ll offer the bill again next session, noting that it attracted unanimous support in the Senate. He said he hopes House Democratic leaders will pass the legislation “so that serious adult criminals can be removed from Green Hill School, allowing those who remain to get the treatment and training the law requires so they can improve their lives.

“They owe it to those in our care and they owe it to the staff who must work in dangerous and volatile conditions,” he said.