DCYF loses court battle amid crisis, inmates returned

DCYF loses court battle amid crisis, residents return to local facility

After a judge’s ruling, DCYF had no choice but to return dozens of young adults to it’s juvenile detention center in Chehalis.

CHEHALIS, Wash. - It’s a move a state lawyer described as "pouring gasoline on a fire," but after a judge’s ruling, the State had no choice but to return dozens of young adults to it’s juvenile detention center in Chehalis.

It’s the latest development in a population crisis that’s unfolding inside the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) facilities.

The Green Hill facility, which houses the state’s oldest juvenile offenders, is beyond capacity. In early July, DCYF announced they would no longer accept any new inmates, a move that drew severe criticism from both counties and judges.

DCYF pivoted and sent 43 of it’s older inmates to adult prisons, but a judge would later rule the agency broke its own legal agreements in doing so, as each of the inmates required a court hearing, among other things, before they could be transferred.

"The department retained the ability to do what they did on July 12th in much the same way they would have done had half the facility burned down and locations needed to be made for those individuals," said Dan Judge, a lawyer for the state – before being cut off by a judge at a recent court hearing.

"The facility didn’t burn down," Judge Egeler responded, before redirecting the argument.

At a time that DCYF said the facility is too full for new inmates, they brought more than 35 of the young adults back. A handful, according to DCYF, decided they’d stay in adult prison.

"We are concerned for managing the safety on that campus," said Allison Krutsinger, the public affairs director for DCYF. "We remain concerned. It is clear we need more capacity in our (juvenile rehabilitative) system."

The issue stems from a 2019 change in Washington law that allowed for juvenile offenders to stay in DCYF facilities until they turned 25 years old. At the time, the move was made to ensure a rehabilitative environment for people as science has shown the brain is still under development until a person’s mid-20s.

However, the state didn’t expand capacity for the juvenile offenders in its care. In fact, it closed a low to medium-security facility on the coast citing issues with finding employees.

In the immediate aftermath of the law change, the COVID-19 pandemic hit which slowed down the state’s court system. Since that time, teens have flooded the criminal justice system – leaving little room for juvenile offenders to go.

A number of groups have stated that DCYF failed to see the obvious: that they needed more beds for the coming flood of offenders. At a minimum, county prosecutors argue they should have begun to sound the alarm months before they made the abrupt decision that they would no longer accept any new inmates.

The latest legal wranglings have left DCYF in a troubling spot. They don’t have enough room to bring in new offenders, and now they’re facing a new lawsuit filed by 13 counties to force them to accept prisoners.

In the short-term, DCYF told FOX 13 that they’ve brought in staff members from various facilities in an attempt to upgrade security for Green Hill after they added dozens of inmates back into the already over-full facility.

Inmates like Caya Lenay, one of the prisoners that returned on Friday, told FOX 13 that it’s a stressful time.

"It’s a very bad, traumatic experience for a lot of people at Green Hill School," said Lenay. "We all talked about it on the bus."