Washington State Department of Corrections

The modern Washington Department of Corrections is a relatively young state agency. Agency oversight of correctional institutions in Washington State went through several transitions during the 20th century before the WADOC's creation in 1981.

Prior to the 1970s, state correctional facilities were managed by the Washington Department of Institutions.[6] Governor Daniel J. Evans consolidated the Department of Institutions, Department of Public Assistance & Vocational Rehabilitation, and other related departments into the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in the 1970s.[7][8]

On July 1, 1981, the Washington State Legislature transferred the administration of adult correctional institutions from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Adult Corrections (DSHS) to the newly created Washington State Department of Corrections as part of the 1981 Corrections Reform Act.[9]

The Washington Department of Corrections organizational structure includes five major divisions:

• Prisons
• Community Corrections
• Administrative Services
• Health Services
• Offender Change
• Executive Policy

Each division has an Assistant Secretary who oversees the division's operations.[4]

The Secretary of Corrections is the executive head of the Department. The Secretary is appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate.[4]

In 2014, Governor Jay Inslee announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in Washington State.[14] According to Inslee, "Equal justice under the law is the state's primary responsibility. And in death penalty cases, I'm not convinced equal justice is being served. The use of the death penalty in this state is unequally applied, sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred."[14] The moratorium means that if a death penalty case comes to the governor's desk for action, he will issue a reprieve.[14] However, this action does not commute the sentences of those on death row or issue any pardons.[14] The majority of Washington's death penalty sentences are overturned and those convicted of capital offenses are rarely executed, indicating questionable sentencing in many cases.[14] Since 1981, the year Washington State's current capital laws were put in place, 32 defendants have been sentenced to die. Of those, 18 have had their sentences converted to life in prison and one was set free.[14]

Prior to Inslee's moratorium, Washington's capital punishment law required that capital punishment imposed by the state's courts be carried out at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Procedures for conducting executions are supervised by the Penitentiary Superintendent.[15] Washington utilizes two methods of execution: lethal injection and hanging. Lethal injection is used unless the inmate under sentence of death chooses hanging as the preferred execution method.[15]

Within 10 days of a trial court entering a judgment and sentence imposing the death penalty, male defendants under sentence of death are transferred to the Penitentiary, where they remain in a segregation unit [Intensive Management Unit North (IMU-N) at the prison] pending appeals and until a death warrant is issued setting the date for the execution. Female defendants under sentence of death are housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor before being transferred to the Penitentiary no later than 72 hours prior to a scheduled execution, also housed in IMU North, although the execution chamber is located in Unit 6.[15]

78 persons have been executed in Washington since 1904, the most recent being Cal Coburn Brown, in 2010.[16][15]

The Washington Department of Corrections revenue-generating, industry job training, and factory food production branch is Washington State Correctional Industries.[17] It is a member of the National Correctional Industries Association.[18]

Correctional Industries began centralizing food production at the Airway Heights Correctional Center in 1995.[19] In the years since, freshly cooked food for incarcerated people in Washington prisons has gradually and in large part been replaced by factory processed, prepackaged food.

The Secretary of Corrections in Washington State is a cabinet level position appointed by the state governor. This position differs from the historical Director of the Washington Department of Institutions in its educational requirements. In the 1950s and 1960s, Washington law mandated that Directors of the Department of Institutions were required to hold graduate degrees.[6] The modern Washington Department of Corrections has no such requirements for its Secretary of Corrections.

In 2007, the Washington Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) spearheaded legislative efforts to create an independent ombudsman position that would provide an alternative avenue of mediation between WADOC, WADOC staff, incarcerated people, and family members of the incarcerated.[33] The resulting bill, SB 5295—sponsored by state Senators Jim Kastama, Dan Swecker, Karen Fraser, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Chris Marr, Debbie Regala, Marilyn Rasmussen, and Rosemary McAuliffe[33]—was not successful. In the years since, many other community groups have added their support for these legislative efforts. Annual attempts to pass an independent ombudsman bill began in 2013 with SB 5177, sponsored by Senators Mike Carrell and Steve Conway.[34] In 2014, Senators Conway, Jeannie Darneille, Steve O'Ban, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Annette Cleveland sponsored SB 6399.[35] In 2015, Senators Jeannie Darneille, Rosemary McAuliffe, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Steve O'Ban, Maralyn Chase, Bob Hasegawa, Karen Keiser, Kirk Pearson, Steve Conway, and David Frockt sponsored SB 5505, with Representatives Luis Moscoso, Roger Goodman, Eric Pettigrew, Sherry Appleton, Tina Orwall, Timm Ormsby, and Laurie Jinkins sponsoring companion bill HB 2005.[36][37]

In the 2016 legislative session, Senators Mark Miloscia, Christine Rolfes, Kirk Pearson, Steve O'Ban, Steve Conway, and Rosemary McAuliffe sponsored unsuccessful SB 6154, with Representatives Luis Moscoso, Eric Pettigrew, Sherry Appleton, Tina Orwall, David Sawyer, Cindy Ryu, Derek Stanford, Gerry Pollet, Teri Hickel, Steve Bergquist, and Sharon Tomiko Santos sponsoring companion HB 2817.[38][39]

In the 2017-2018 legislative session an ombudsman bill, HB 1889, passed both chambers of the legislature.[40]

WADOC opposed these legislative efforts. In 2016, WADOC created its own internal ombudsman position. Carlos Lugo, who had previously worked on a special WADOC project concerning visitation access for Latino incarcerated people, was hired as the first WADOC ombudsman.[41]

The WADOC Intelligence and Investigations Unit asked the FBI to become involved in the investigation of employee contraband smuggling at WADOC's Monroe Correctional Complex smuggling in December 2015.[42] A correctional officer was arrested on September 29, 2016.[42] FBI agents determined the officer was accepting bribes of up to $1,000 to smuggle contraband into the prison.[42]

In August 2016 a 23-year-old incarcerated man at Monroe Correctional Complex died from a drug overdose, causing renewed concerns statewide about contraband entering WADOC prisons.[43]

At Cedar Creek Corrections Center in 2003, the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College founded the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP).[44] Dan Pacholke was Cedar Creek Correctional Center's superintendent at the time, and started composting and water catchment programs to save money and create meaningful work for the men incarcerated at the minimum security facility.[44] Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, a member of the faculty at Evergreen, asked for incarcerated people to join her in a study to grow native mosses, and Cedar Creek welcomed her proposal.[44] From here, the partnership between Evergreen and WADOC strengthened and expanded. In the decade plus since, SPP has expanded to several other WADOC prisons. Incarcerated people raise endangered species and carry out impressive composting operations using recycled construction materials.[44]

• 1981 - New Department of Corrections is created to oversee correctional institutions previously overseen by Department of Social and Health Services.[45]
• 1984 - Sentencing Review Act (SRA) overhauls state's criminal code.[46]
• 1995 - Correctional Industries centralized factory food production begins at Airway Heights Correctional Center.[19]
• 2000s - Incarcerated people are required to order food packages from a few select contract vendors instead of local grocery stores.
• 2003 - DOC and Evergreen State College collaborate to found the Sustainability in Prisons Project
• 2009 - Incarcerated people are required to wear uniforms instead of personal clothing.
• 2011 - Line of duty death of Officer Jayme Biendl brings increased attention to security.
• 2015 - State Senate passes SB 5650, establishing a medical subaccount exempt from WADOC deductions to incarcerated people's personal accounts.[47]
• 2016 - WADOC hires an internal ombudsman.[41] Secretary Dick Morgan publicly states that the WADOC will phase out the use of the word "offender".[48]

• List of law enforcement agencies in Washington
• List of U.S. state prisons
• List of United States state correction agencies

• Official website
• Washington State Correctional Industries
• doc.wa.gov