Did sex offenders held on Pierce County island have delayed medical, dental care?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Watchdog report alleged care delays at SCC; DSHS confirms no staff discipline.
- Medical and dental access gaps persisted; officials will make changes.
- Ombuds roles cut amid state budget issues, despite findings of inconsistent oversight.
After a watchdog report described potential medical neglect at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, no personnel action has been taken, confirmed the state Department of Social and Human Services on Aug. 18.
The medical director of SCC resigned in April, the same month the ombudsperson for the SCC shared a report that found the medical director and the SCC dentist did not regularly see residents who are confined to McNeil Island after completing their prison sentences for sex offenses.
DSHS Chief Medical Officer Brian Waiblinger told The News Tribune the ombudsperson’s report hinged on data that didn’t encompass the full scope of care provided, although DSHS is making changes to better meet resident needs. Messages left with the SCC Ombudsperson media line were not returned.
Waiblinger said “no personnel action” was taken as a result of the report and the contracted dentist is still in good standing. DSHS media relations manager Jessica Nelson said medical director Deborah Havens left of her own accord and her departure was not related to the medical report. Havens told The News Tribune in an email Aug. 18 that she had accepted another position two months prior.
As reported by the Seattle Times last month, ombudsperson Kayla Elladae conducted independent reviews of internal SCC policies and reported to the state Office of Justice and Civil Rights before she was laid off after sharing her report with Department of Social and Human Services leadership. Two other independent advocacy staff who worked closely with the ombuds team were reassigned off the island, and the same day Elladae was laid off “DSHS rewrote its rules for external oversight, eliminating the independence of the ombudsperson’s position,” reported Rebecca Moss.
In response to questions from The News Tribune, Nelson said via email Aug. 18 that former Acting Secretary Cheryl Strange issued a directive on April 22 clarifying that SCC Ombuds have access to “all records and documents normally available for public inspection.” Under WAC 388-881-030 the SCC must retain an ombudsperson service to conduct independent, neutral program reviews. Nelson said Strange and the state’s Behavioral Health and Habiliation Administration formally requested a couple months ago to update certain sections of the statute to have the ombuds team report to the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary.
“There was no intent to weaken independent oversight of SCC. The SCC Ombuds has always reported to the Office of the Secretary,” Nelson wrote. “The revision will reinforce current practice, that the ombudsperson must conduct their work outside the supervision of the SCC CEO and the assistant secretary for BHHA.”
Like other state agencies, DSHS had to “make difficult decisions in May to eliminate positions throughout the department as part of the state budget shortfall,” she said.
“The decision to eliminate the SCC Ombuds position was carefully considered based on budgetary needs and was unrelated to the medical report’s findings,” Nelson wrote. “DSHS currently has a team of six ombuds positions supporting the Behavioral Health and Habilitation Administration facilities. One of these existing positions will absorb the duties and be assigned to provide ombuds services for SCC residents beginning in September 2025.”
Did the report find medical neglect?
About 130 residents civilly committed to McNeil Island in Steilacoom are secluded from the rest of society and entirely dependent on state care. In 2024, Elladae explored allegations of medical neglect at the facility and came to the conclusion that Havens, the former medical director, “does not regularly see” residents in the clinic, some residents did not see the dentist annually and the SCC has more restrictive medication rules than the Department of Corrections.
Elladae’s report used data collected by the medical charting program Therap to calculate the time Havens spent with patients and found that 41% of residents were not seen by Havens from July 2022 to May 2024. Upon analyzing her calendar, Elladae also concluded Havens spent 95% of her time in non-medical specific meetings, despite the expectation that 40% of her time would be spent on direct patient care. Elladae also found that SCC has stricter over-the-counter medication policies than the Department of Corrections.
Havens wrote in the report that it is “spurious and misleading” to use SCC’s medical charting program and her calendar to draw conclusions about her time spent doing any activity because that didn’t capture other responsibilities of the medical director’s job, including planning, staffing, ordering, organizing and policy writing. In an interview Monday, Waiblinger said Therap and Outlook are not often used to track patient appointments and said Havens’ role did include direct patient care but it was not her primary role.
Waiblinger said he has been advocating for the creation of an electronic health recording system on the island, which has not happened due to cost and limited internet bandwidth. Currently staff are using paper records and Therap to record appointments, he said.
In the event of an emergency, residents are taken off the island to get treatment, Waiblinger said. Residents are not allowed to order supplements or medical equipment for themselves off the internet because some supplements can interact with psychiatric medications and equipment could contain banned or dangerous items, he said.
“Residents do not like being told what they can and cannot order, and that is a sticking point,” Waiblinger said. “That I can understand. They’re in a place where they don’t want to be, and then there are restrictions.”
Yuri Lee was hired as the new SCC medical director in June and SCC has filled a health services manager position to assist Lee with clinic work, Waiblinger said. Richard Guzha’s dental contract with DSHS runs through the end of the year and he is paid $185 per hour, Nelson said.
Havens now works as an associate medical director in Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries, according to her LinkedIn profile. She worked as the medical director of SCC for nearly three years, making about $322,000 annually, according to DSHS. Havens has been a part-time clinical instructor at the University of Washington for more than four years, per her LinkedIn.
Dental delays?
In her report, Elladae found allegations of residents not receiving annual dental exams or the dentist in a timely manner were “partially substantiated,” meaning there was evidence that verified some, but not all of the allegations. Although the dentist is supposed to visit SCC twice a week, the dentist did not enter notes into Therap for the first five months of 2024 and 23 of 127 residents were not seen (about half of residents not seen refused or cancelled their appointments), the report said.
Upon reviewing appointment slips residents submitted to see the dentist, 43% of residents were seen in two weeks but on average patients had to wait about 61 days for an appointment last year, according to the report. About a third of residents (22 people) had to wait longer than 60 days to get an appointment, with the longest delay being 342 days — much longer than the average wait time for a general practitioner of 17.2 days, according to the report.
In one case a resident waited 10 months to have a broken tooth fixed and another resident didn’t receive a crown on his tooth following a root canal, despite both mentioning discomfort, Elladae reported.
Waiblinger said Guzha has been working for SCC since 2019 and the SCC wasn’t aware of any prolonged dental care delays in 2024.
“Most of the delays that occurred were due to patient refusal of care,” he said. “Some of them were referred out, but most were offered one option and didn’t particularly care for the option that was offered. So that delayed how we could provide care.”
When asked about delays of other medication in the report — like the case when a resident missed three doses of their HIV medication — Waiblinger said there are sometimes delays when residents arrive at SCC from another facility. He could not confirm that had happened in this case, but said living on an island is an added factor.
“We do our best to make sure that there is no lapse in medication or treatment from when someone is transferable from one facility to another,” he said. “But, because we are reliant on others to provide the medications to us, there can be a gap. Usually it’s very short, but it can happen.”
Although about one-fifth of the 127 residents interviewed by the ombudsperson reported that they had experienced physical or verbal abuse by SCC medical staff, Elladae’s investigation was ultimately inconclusive. A common theme among residents was that medical staff had been rude, dismissive or had a bad attitude.
In response, Havens wrote in the report, “There is no current substantiation of inappropriate action. This is an incorrect statement and is offensive to the medical team that endeavors to provide compassionate and competent care 24/7.”
Waiblinger said he couldn’t dispute resident reports, but said if abuse was observed, “we would have taken, most likely, some action.”
“All of our staff receive training: annual training, review training. Depending on the staff, they may get more intensive and specialized training, but they all get some level of training on how to interact appropriately with residents and each other, for that matter,” he said. “I verified that with SCC, that there are a number of things that are available to them for training.”
Waiblinger said his biggest takeaway in looking at the records and information provided is “not that we weren’t providing care … But how to improve that relationship [with residents] and make sure that they understand the care they’re getting and how it’s appropriate for them. I think we really need to work on that a little bit more.”
What is the Special Commitment Center?
The SCC is a mental health treatment facility for Level 3 sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences. Residents are ordered by the court to live at the facility on McNeil Island until they are deemed eligible to transition back into society. As previously reported by The News Tribune, for more than 100 years the island was a federal prison that held infamous convicts such as Charles Manson and Mickey Cohen. In 1981, the facility became a state corrections center and officially closed as the oldest prison facility in the Northwest in 2011 after 136 years.
In 1998, the state legislature authorized the placement of the SCC on McNeil Island, creating “a total confinement facility” for chronic and violent sexual predators, which operates to this day under the control and direction of the Department of Social and Health Services, according to DSHS’s website.
Residents on McNeil Island are civilly committed to SCC upon completion of their prison sentence if a licensed psychologist finds “that the individual suffers from a personality disorder and/or mental abnormality that makes them more likely than not to commit an act of sexual violence if not confined to a secure facility,” according to DSHS’s website. A superior court judge ultimately makes that final decision and residents are evaluated every year to determine they still meet that criteria.
“Prior to the creation of the SCC, sexually violent predators were released into the community after their prison sentences. The Community Protection Act of 1990 created the ability to civilly commit sexually violent predators, and the SCC was established to provide inpatient treatment,” DSHS says on its website.
As previously reported by The News Tribune, in September two dozen SCC employees protested outside of Steilacoom City Hall, walking out of work to advocate for better pay and working conditions on McNeil Island. Employees said the SCC is chronically understaffed and a heavy workload and resident violence have left staff in an exhausting and sometimes dangerous position.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Did sex offenders held on Pierce County island have delayed medical, dental care?."
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the names of the Department of Social and Health Services and the Behavioral Health and Habilitation Administration.
