Families and loved ones of inmates in Washington state prisons are demanding that Gov. Jay Inslee and Department of Corrections Secretary Stephen Sinclair release more inmates from DOC facilities to prevent them for contracting COVID-19.
Many family members of prisoners say inmates tell them prison guards do not wear masks while on duty and they fear they will bring COVID-19 into the prisons, resulting in prisoners getting sick and dying.
In July, COVID-19 cases skyrocketed at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, about 100 miles southwest of Spokane. According to data from the DOC, 233 inmates and 68 guards have tested positive for COVID-19 and two inmates have died from the disease.
But in an email, Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for Gov. Inslee, wrote, "The Governor's Office is not currently looking at any proposals for additional releases from DOC at this time."
Twyla Kill is the founder of a Facebook support group for families of prisoners called "The Truth is Inside Out." Since she started the group, she has heard from hundreds of families of inmates from all over the state, many of whom are worried that their loved ones are going to contract the disease while in prison.
Kill's husband is incarcerated in the Monroe Correctional Complex, about 30 miles north of Seattle. Kill said her husband was part of the Graduated Reentry program and he was about to begin his six months of work release. After that, he would have been allowed to transfer to home confinement with electronic monitoring.
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COVID-19 prevented that from happening.
Kill's husband attempted to sue Gov. Inslee to force the release of DOC inmates in March, but the case was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. However, Inslee did commute the sentences of roughly 1,000 prisoners who were scheduled for release before June 29. Those whose sentences were commuted had committed non-violent and non-sexual offenses.
Kill said not enough prisoners were released to keep inmates safe from COVID-19. "You cannot socially distance in an overcrowded facility. We need to reduce," she said. "They need to use the powers that they have at their disposal to decarcerate."
Kill helped organize a demonstration in front of the Capitol steps on July 31. Her group and other support groups for prisoners' families met outside of the Capitol building, along with about 45 protesters, to apply what Kill called "family pressure."
The demonstrators want more non-violent prisoners with 18 months or fewer left in their sentences to be transferred to home monitoring. Kill believes if the state does this, it will also help alleviate the state budget crunch because electronic monitoring devices are rented and paid for by the detainees who wear them -- in addition to keeping more people away from exposure to coronavirus.
Norren Leit attended the protest because of her son, who is serving a lengthy sentence and would not be released if the protesters' demands were met. Leit is worried that the current prison population will allow for COVID-19 to spread rapidly in DOC facilities.
"It's incredible, the lack of concern (for prisoners)," she said. "We just want DOC to step up and take the steps necessary to reduce the population inside the prison by using the other means available to them such as work release, camps, home electronic monitoring. This would all reduce the risk inside by increasing the physical distancing."
Two protesters whose loved ones are in Coyote Ridge both addressed the crowd at the protest.
Julie Modun drove up from Vancouver to talk about her brother in Coyote Ridge. "They've been locked down for hours and hours and hours," Modun said.
She said Coyote Ridge has kept inmates in their cells for most hours of the day and that inmates are sometimes forced to choose between calling their loved ones or taking a shower. "His mental health is going down because of all this," she said.
Department of Corrections Communications Director Janelle Guthrie wrote in an email to The Olympian that, while Coyote Ridge did have a large number of inmates get infected, "as of August 5, only seven individuals are considered to have active COVID-19 symptoms, and only three are housed at CRCC at this time. None are hospitalized."
Guthrie wrot that Coyote Ridge was the first facility to test all inmates in a unit, including those who were asymptomatic. Inmates who tested positive were grouped together and separated from those who tested negative, including Modun's brother, allowing them all more time out of their cells.
Modun is still concerned. Her brother has told her guards do not wear masks and that he is worried they will be the cause of more infections in the facility.
After being informed of the allegations some of the protesters levied against guards, Guthrie wrote in an email to The Olympian, "Both incarcerated individuals and staff have been consistently reminded to wear appropriate face masks and PPE, practice social distancing and wash hands/use hand sanitizers. We've recently started quality assurance checks to confirm this is happening."
Demonstrators are also frustrated with the inability to connect with their incarcerated loved ones during the pandemic. Nyema Clark, a Tacoma woman, said she been "having to deal with limited contact" with her incarcerated partner. Phone calls are allowed just once a day, she said, and video calls are not allowed at all.
Clark told The Olympian, "There aren't the parameters in place to secure that he's healthy and his health is looked after."
She's frustrated with the DOC's lack of communication about how they're handling COVID-19 and keeping prisoners like her partner safe.
"We're pretty much just waiting and at the whim of our government," she said at the demonstration. "That's why we're here today, to try to reach out and get some people to realize what it's like for us and put them in our shoes."
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