Three bills intended to address the overcrowding crisis at Green Hill School in Chehalis had public hearings in the Washington state Senate Human Services Committee on Monday afternoon.
None of the three bills — Senate Bill 5260, Senate Bill 5278 and Senate Bill 5296 — are aimed at solving the complex overpopulation problem on their own, but instead are meant to be puzzle pieces that fit together to address the issues that led to the overcrowding in the first place and to provide some avenues to reduce current populations at the facility.
“If nothing changes, we really worry about outcomes for young people in the long term,” said Allison Krutsinger, director of public relations for the state Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), which manages Green Hill, during committee hearings on Monday.
“Needs are not being met and, best case scenario, we worry about outcomes, their access to education, their access to programming,” Krutsinger said. “Worst case scenario, we worry about more than that.”
Green Hill School, a juvenile rehabilitation center for boys and men ages 17 to 25, has been operating at overcapacity since mid-2023.
As of Dec. 17, 2024, Green Hill’s population was 239, nearly 60 young people above the maximum bed capacity of 180, according to DCYF. The facility hovered just above the 180 mark until it hit a spike in March 2024, when it jumped to 231. It has remained around 230 ever since, according to DCYF.
Overcrowding concerns came after a series of 2018 and 2019 laws known as JR to 25, which allow young people sentenced in adult court for crimes committed before age 18 to spend their confinement in juvenile facilities until age 25, instead of until 21 as under previous law. If their sentences extend beyond their 25th birthday, they are transferred to Department of Corrections (DOC) custody.
This change came after federal and state judges ruled, citing evolving science that showed young people’s brains aren’t fully developed until age 25, and that juveniles and young adults should be treated differently for their crimes than older adults.
“Wherever we may have been when we adopted JR to 25 policy a few years ago, whether we supported it or didn’t support it, we’re in it now and, frankly, we’re not delivering on our promise. Our promise was to deliver rehabilitative services to these folks, and we are failing, and failing in large part to the overpopulation at Green Hill,” Se. John Braun, R-Centralia, said during the committee hearings on Monday.
Officials have cited overcrowding at Green Hill School as a reason for a rise in crime at the facility, which have included drug possession, assault and other felony charges. As of July 2024, 228 aggressive acts had occurred in state juvenile rehabilitation facilities across the state, of which Green Hill is the largest, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The crimes aren’t relegated to the inmate population. Five Green Hill School corrections staffers at the facility were charged over the past year for crimes such as introducing drugs to the facility, allowing the assault of an inmate and inappropriate relationships with inmates.
“More and more young people on that campus means that conditions only become more challenging for them and for staff, and safety is a paramount concern as that number increases,” Krutsinger said.
In response to the overcrowding crisis, DCYF temporarily suspended intakes at Green Hill and another juvenile rehabilitation center, Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie, over the summer.
Around the same time, the state agency transferred 43 young men from Green Hill School in Chehalis to adult Department of Corrections custody, a move that was reversed after a Thurston County judge found that it violated an agreement from a previous lawsuit.
“When that intake freeze happened, it made a bad problem worse in our communities,” said James McMahan, of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. “We already struggle, frankly, to find an appropriate place to confine a young person who has shown to be a danger to our communities … We support efforts to ensure that adequate capacity exists in our state systems.”
“I’m confident that we’ll leave here in April with some solutions on the table,” Krutsinger said Monday.
The state last year announced plans to build more capacity for juveniles on the campus of the existing Stafford Creek Correctional Facility in Grays Harbor County, separate from the DOC inmates who are held there.
Senate Bill 5260, Senate Bill 5278, Senate Bill 5296
All three bills heard by the Washington state Senate Human Services Committee received general support for their attempt to address the overcrowding issue at Green Hill School, but many who testified on the bills during public hearing on Monday said they felt the bills needed more work before they could be effective legislative solutions.
The bill that almost all parties agreed needs the most work is SB 5278, which would require DCYF to transfer inmates from juvenile facilities to DOC and community facilities once it hits 105% capacity so it can get back to 100%.
Discussion and testimony about SB 5278 took up roughly half of the Human Services Committee’s two-hour committee meeting on Monday, with representatives of juvenile justice organizations opposing the legislation due to its interference with the existing transfer process, concerns about violating their rights to rehabilitation services allotted under JR to 25 and concerns about “punitive transfers.”
Braun, who is sponsoring the bill, said Monday that another draft of the bill that includes feedback and recommendations made by DCYF is coming.
Other proposed changes to the bill included coming up with a system to accurately determine what Green Hill School’s safe capacity is and adding a process for transferred inmates to return to juvenile rehabilitation.
Creation of a process for inmates transferred out of juvenile rehabilitation to return was also a proposed change for SB 5260, sponsored by Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane, which would streamline the process for inmates in juvenile rehabilitation centers to voluntarily transfer to DOC by requiring transfers to be completed within 10 days after the inmate requests a transfer.
Concerns raised by those who testified Monday included logistic issues with making sure the inmates’ health care and other benefits don’t get lost in the quick transfer, possible violations of the youths’ rights to hearings before transfer, and ensuring that youths have the time and resources to make informed decisions about the transfer without coercion.
Last year, DCYF received 22 requests from inmates to transfer out of Green Hill, of which four were denied, according to Krutsinger.
As part of an effort to reduce the number of intakes at Green Hill, SB 5296, sponsored by Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, would require judges to find with “clear and convincing evidence” that youths need to serve time in a secure institution and give juvenile judges more discretion when sentencing youths, allowing judges a greater ability to consider diversion programs, alternatives to incarceration and other support services when sentencing.
“I think we can all agree that the status quo is unacceptable and it’s also unsustainable,” Wilson said Monday. “ … So we need to address this but we also need to address this by finding solutions that meet the needs of our young adults that are in those systems.”
A representative from TeamChild voiced support for the bill Monday, while representatives for the Washington state Association for Prosecution Attorneys and Washington Association of Juvenile Court Administrators voiced some concerns with the bill, including its size and scope.
“The best strategy and the best investment this legislature can make is prevention and ensuring the kids don’t enter the deep end of the juvenile justice system, the part of the system that DCYF is responsible for,” Krutsinger said, adding that, while she’s supportive of the general concept of the bill, she submitted “significant technical feedback” and anticipated the general impact on the Green Hill and Echo Glen populations to be “relatively small.”
The three bills were scheduled for executive session on Feb. 5, but, because they were “not quite ready,” Wilson said, they were moved to Feb. 12.
