State to release up to 950 nonviolent offenders early in response to COVID-19

The state plans to release 600 to 950 nonviolent offenders early to free up space in state prisons to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a report required by the state Supreme Court, the attorney general’s office said the plan covers inmates with nonviolent and/or drug or alcohol offenses whose release dates are within six to eight months. The release of inmates will begin “in the coming days,” the state said told the high court on Monday.

“This will help allow for increased physical distancing throughout the Department of Corrections’ system, reducing the population by up to 950 people to continue to reduce the risks to incarcerated individuals while balancing public safety concerns,“ Gov. Jay Inslee said in a written statement.

Inslee said some inmates will be released through commutation and others will be released into a modified graduated reentry program. DOC operates 12 prisons with about 18,000 inmates.

The state announced last Friday that a seventh inmate had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Monroe Correctional Complex, where the outbreak has erupted in the Minimum Security Unit. An inmate from the Monroe prison who was housed in a community medical center contracted COVID-19 last month. Also, five staff members have tested positive from the correctional complex.

The filing of the report Monday came five days after a disturbance by more than 100 inmates in the Minimum Security Unit ended last Wednesday night without any injuries but caused property damage. Inmates protested the state’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Department of Corrections’ release plan — including electronic monitoring, if feasible — will focus on five groups serving sentences for nonviolent crimes:

• Inmates who are due for release — both those vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 and not — within 75 days.
• Vulnerable inmates who are due for release in 2 to 6 months, through a program for them to re-enter the community.
• Inmates vulnerable to COVID-19 who are scheduled for release in 6 to 8 months, who have an approved release plan.
• Inmates incarcerated for lower level supervision violations.
• Inmates who are on work release and can be released through the furlough authority of Stephen Sinclair, Secretary of the Department of Corrections.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said those who are 65 years old or above and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes may be at higher risk for more serious complications from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The state’s 153-page report filed with the Supreme Court says DOC has taken steps to reduce the number of individuals returned to confinement for violations of conditions of community custody.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed Inslee and Sinclair to “immediately exercise their authority to take all necessary steps to protect the health and safety” of inmates in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The high court ordered them to report in writing no later than noon Monday on “all steps that have been taken and will be taken.”

The court order was in response to an emergency motion filed by a nonprofit law firm, Columbia Legal Services. The group filed a lawsuit last month seeking the release of certain inmates around the state who are vulnerable to becoming infected with COVID-19.

Reached for comment, Nick Straley, an attorney and assistant deputy director of advocacy at Columbia Legal Services, said the report filed Monday proves that the state is “moving too slowly and too timidly” in response to the outbreak.

Straley said the pandemic requires significant reductions in the number of people locked up in all of Washington’s prisons.

“Many more people can be safely released from Washington’s prisons than the few the state appears willing to consider at some point in the future,” he said in a statement.

Straley said the state fails to answer a crucial question in its report, which is how COVID-19 got into the Monroe Correctional Complex.

“As objective public health experts have noted for weeks, all it takes is one asymptomatic person to get inside a prison for an outbreak to occur. That is likely how the outbreak at Monroe Correctional Complex started. Unfortunately, there is nothing DOC can do to prevent such an outbreak from occurring again at any of its facilities,” he said.

Sinclair said DOC has “worked aggressively” to develop and implement protocols and directives to combat the pandemic.

On March 15, the prison system began screening all staff entering its facilities. About 1,344 employees have been denied entry through the screening process. Medical staff has cleared 836 of those employees to return to work, the report said.

The department has put in place measures to immediately isolate inmates suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19, the report said. They include requiring an inmate to wear a surgical mask until he or she can be isolated; isolating the inmate in a single person cell and if one is not available, housing or “cohorting” patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Nick Allen, an attorney and deputy director of advocacy at Columbia Legal Services, said cohorting involves holding many potentially infectious people together, to ensure that someone who may not actually be infectious comes into contact with others who may be infectious.

“The only reason the state engages in cohorting as quarantine in prisons is because it does not have the facilities to allow for actual and appropriate social distancing,” Allen said.

In addition to outlining DOC’s steps to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, the report from the attorney general’s office provided more information about last Wednesday’s disturbance in the Minimum Security Unit.

During a Skype call between inmates in the B unit and DOC’s infectious disease control physician, inmates from the D-unit broke their quarantine and without authorization went outside into the recreation yard, the report said.

“Individuals from C-unit followed, resulting in essentially a mob of individuals from the two units gathering in the yard. To contain the volatile situation, staff directed the individuals to return to their units for count.

“They initially complied with the direction, but once inside, pulled fire alarms, set off fire extinguishers, vandalized property, turned bunks over to use as barricades, wrapped towels around their faces and stuffed magazines in their sweatshirts to protect against riot control measures, and said they were going to take hostages if staff entered the tier,” the report said.

The prison’s DOC Emergency Response Team used pepper spray and sting balls — which release light, noise, and rubber pellets — to halt the disturbance after three hours, the report said.

This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 1:00 PM with the headline "State to release up to 950 nonviolent offenders early in response to COVID-19."