WASHINGTON, USA — The Department of Children, Youth, and Families in Washington State said that 43 young men with adult sentences were moved from a juvenile prison to the Department of Corrections.
A week before the announcement, the department said it would no longer be taking new students at the Green Hill School and the Echo Glen Children’s Center because they were too full and there were safety issues.
DCYF says that Green Hill was 30% fuller than it should have been and that Echo Glen had 236 people living there when it should have had 180.
“This choice was not made without much thought,” DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter said in a news release. “The security risks of overcrowded facilities have made our current situation untenable.” “The safety of the youth and staff must come first, and it is safer for everyone when we have the right number of beds to support recovery.”
The DCYF says that all of the young men who were moved were over 21 years old, and their terms meant that they would have been moved when they turned 25.
When the Superior Court Judges’ Association replied to Hunter’s letter, they said that the overcrowding problem was real, but it could have been avoided and didn’t happen quickly.
The letter says that changes to state law that make juvenile programs more available have been in place since 2018. Since then, the department has closed a facility for men ages 16 to 25 who were in juvenile detention. The SCJA said this made things even more crowded, which caused many safety problems at Echo Glen and Green Hill School.
The letter also said that the move goes against what the law says the department has to do.
“The Department’s pronouncement is completely at odds with its legal obligations and this decision places an undue burden on counties with limited resources for these young people,” it says.
The state law says these prisoners should stay in a youth center until they are 25.
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs said it was glad DCYF did something, but it “encourages the state to find constructive solutions as soon as possible.”
DCYF says that the department is working hard to open a small, medium-security center for kids, but there isn’t a set date for when it will open.
