CHEHALIS, Wash. — Department of Corrections officers have been sent in to help with the staffing problems at the troubled Green Hill juvenile detention facility in Chehalis.
“DOC currently has six employees at Green Hill and will be onsite as needed or when called to support safe operations at the campus,” Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) spokesperson Nancy Gutierrez said.
Last month DCYF caused an uproar among police, prosecutors and the courts when it suddenly halted intakes at the Green Hill School and Echo Glen Children's Center. Green Hill rehabilitates 17 to 25-year-old male offenders. Echo Glen confines younger males. The agency said an unexpected rise in inmate population at both medium to maximum security detention centers was to blame, along with low staffing levels.
Days after that announcement, DCYF transferred 43 inmates over the age of 21 to the Washington Department of Corrections, which houses adult inmates. But a judge soon ruled that the agency transferred those young men without proper hearings and ordered their return to Green Hill.
Because the inmates couldn’t stay at DOC, the state has brought the DOC to them in the form of additional guards on loan from DOC at Green Hill. DCYF said all the young men had been returned to its facilities.
DCYF faces a lawsuit filed last week by 13 counties which say the agency has violated state law by refusing to accept young men that are sentenced to juvenile rehabilitation by the courts. The lawsuit filed on July 31 includes declarations from juvenile court administrators detailing the hardships caused by DCYF’s decision.
