OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington's governor defends procedures at the state’s maximum security detention center for boys, noted in a Feb. 22 letter to the state senate’s leading Republican.
Gov. Jay Inslee said “additional security measures” are underway to address “the very real and complex challenges” at the Green Hill School in Chehalis.
After the KING 5 Investigators reported on four fentanyl overdoses in six days in January by young inmates, state Sen. John Braun (R-Chehalis) renewed his call last month for an independent, credible investigation into how drugs are entering the secure facility.
“Rehabilitation requires a balance between accountability and compassion to achieve long-term success,” Inslee wrote in answer to Braun’s demand.
Inslee said the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has added additional patrols of the Green Hill perimeter, new visitor protocols, plans to implement new body scanners, and a centralized process for reporting incidents to local law enforcement.
"It is absolutely true," Inslee wrote, that fentanyl, and a state law that now allows DCYF to house young offenders up to the age of 25, are a combustible mix in Green Hill.
The governor’s office previously said that the school is still grappling with how to handle violent adults inside a facility built for teenagers.
The Washington State Department of Corrections, which runs the state’s adult prisons, is “also engaged in assessing additional steps to strengthen operations,” the letter read.
Last summer, local law enforcement asked Green Hill administrators to hand over drugs that they had seized from young offenders over the years, but not reported to police. When Green Hill management dragged its feet, police got a search warrant to enter the state facility and seized drugs and contraband stored in lockers in the Green Hill laundry room.
Prosecutors have charged more than two dozen of those cases, including some offenders who were released from Green Hill years ago.
Sen. Braun, the state Senate’s minority leader, called Green Hill a place “of chaos and lawlessness” in a letter to Inslee last month demanding an investigation.
