OLYMPIA, Wash. — Thurston County Judge Anne Egeler ruled that 43 offenders sent from a juvenile detention facility to adult prisons must be returned to the state’s juvenile detention center in Lewis County.
Dan Judge, the assistant attorney general representing the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families, argued the state needed to move the offenders, all men in their early 20s, to alleviate the crowding at Green Hill School.
Judge said the state reached a “tipping point” earlier this year when overcrowding caused an increase in fights, fewer security measures for violent offenders, and a decrease in the state’s ability to offer education within the facility.
On July 5, DCYF put a freeze on admitting new offenders. The following week, 43 offenders were transferred to state prisons.
Under state law, those who are sentenced as juveniles are supposed to be housed in juvenile facilities until the age of 25 unless hearings are held prior to transfers.
Columbia Legal Services sued the state on behalf of offenders, arguing the state should have held hearings for the 43 men.
Attorney Sarah Nagy said the state violated policy and the civil rights of the men.
Nagy said the men who were transferred were not violent, and the transfers canceled education and mentoring programs.
“DCYF had a responsibility to care for these young men, to guide their rehabilitation, and oversee it. They broke that promise when they transferred them illegally,” said Nagy.
Judge Egeler’s ruling requires the state to return the offenders to Green Hill School by Friday, August 2.
The state appealed the ruling and asked Judge Egeler for an extension.
Egeler said she would issue updated rulings by Monday morning, July 29.