WA suspends intakes at two youth detention centers
Washington will temporarily stop taking in sentenced youth at two juvenile detention facilities as the state struggles with overcrowding at the sites, officials said Saturday.
Juvenile offenders recently sentenced will remain in a county facility until the population at Green Hill School in Chehalis reaches “safe and sustainable capacity levels,” said the Department of Children, Youth and Families. The agency believes that “could take months.”
“When too many young people are concentrated in small spaces it can escalate behaviors and limit the ability for therapeutic rehabilitation,” said Ross Hunter, the department’s secretary, in a news release. “Our facilities must be safe, therapeutic, and functional.”
Green Hill and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie are the state’s only two medium and maximum security facilities for juvenile offenders. The department said young people entering its juvenile facilities outnumbered releases over the last year, and sentences are getting longer.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/wa-suspends-intakes-at-two-youth-detention-centers/