State to allow visitation at 3 WA corrections facilities as COVID cases decline
Cedar Creek Corrections Center and two other Washington Department of Corrections facilities will reopen to visitors this weekend after being closed for several weeks.
Clallam Bay and Olympic Corrections Centers also will reopen, according to a Tuesday news release from the DOC.
Additionally, the department says visitations will resume for nearly all work release facilities. Only two such facilities will remain closed, Brownstone and Progress House.
The reopening comes as COVID-19 case counts have been decreasing across the state.
“The pandemic has been hard on everyone,” DOC Secretary Sheryl Strange said. “I am very pleased that our numbers are such that we can begin opening visitation.”
A wave of infections driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant began in early December and peaked in mid-January. In response, the DOC paused in-person visitation at prison and work release facilities.
All state prisons experiencing a facility-wide outbreak will remain closed to visitors until their outbreaks have ended.
The DOC’s Extended Family Visits Program will remain closed for now, although the department says it expects to reevaluate this policy on March 13.
The program allows incarcerated individuals to meet with immediate family members in a private visit unit.
On Feb. 16, the DOC reported 12 prison and work release facilities were on “outbreak status” compared to 20 on Jan. 24. As of last week, the DOC held about 12,371 people at its various facilities daily.
In the last 30 days, Cedar Creek Corrections Center has seen 30 cases among its incarcerated population. To date, the facility has seen 189 cases and no deaths due to COVID-19.
Across the entire prison system, state data shows there have been 13,248 cases among the incarcerated population and 16 deaths due to COVID-19. As of Wednesday, 423 of those cases remained active.
Five of the deaths occurred at the Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Aberdeen, which leads all other facilities in deaths, per the data. However, no additional deaths have been reported from that facility in a little over a year.
Among staff, Cedar Creek has confirmed 62 cases and no deaths. In all, the data show 4,054 staff at all locations have tested positive for the virus and four have died. Three of those deaths were linked to the Stafford Creek facility.
“We all understand how important visitation is and the role it plays in the health and well-being of those in our care and custody,” Strange said. “The health and safety of our staff, incarcerated individuals and their families continues to be our priority, and with COVID cases declining, I am glad that we are beginning to move forward with those important connections and moments.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 1:20 PM.
