Департамент исправительных учреждений штата Вашингтон: история и современность.

Law enforcement agency

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. 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.

The department currently has 12 work release facilities. All but two of these facilities are operated by contractors, who manage the daily safety and security and have oversight of the facilities full time (24 hours a day, 7 days per week). Department staff are located on site to assist in supervision, monitoring, and case management of those under supervision, as well as monitoring of the contracts. Formerly incarcerated people housed in work release facilities have progressed from full confinement to partial confinement, and are required to seek, secure, and maintain employment in the community, as well as pay for their room and board. This model is designed to provide some foundation for employment and housing when the formerly incarcerated are released to communities.

Community Supervision occurs at 86 varied locations in the community to include: field offices, community justice centers, Community Oriented Policing (COP) Shops and outstations. Activities of supervised people in the community are monitored, which includes home visits, by a Community Corrections Officer to ensure compliance with court, or known as the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, which was the Washington State Board of Prison Terms and Paroles (ISRB), only those individuals who have been deemed rehabilitated by the ISRB are placed on Parole and department conditions of supervision, such as Community Supervision and/or Community Custody. 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." 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. It is a member of the National Correctional Industries Association. Correctional Industries began centralizing food production at the Airway Heights Correctional Center in 1995. 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.

On May 21, 2015, The GEO Group announced the signing of a contract with the Washington Department of Corrections for the out of state housing of up to 1,000 prisoners at the company owned North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, with a contract term of five years inclusive of renewal option periods.

Under the Washington state Food Umbrella Contract, WA DOC's Correctional Industries procures products from Food Services of America, Liberty Distributing, Medosweet Farms, Spokane Produce, Terry Dairy's, Triple "B" Corporations, and Unisource. WA DOC also contracts with Evergreen Vending, Coca Cola, and other private food vendors for its facility vending machines.

WA DOC contracts with JPay, a private company that charges the incarcerated and their families for electronic mail, photo sharing, money transfer, and video visiting services. Phone services for the incarcerated and their families are through WA DOC's contract with Global Tel Link.

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. The modern Washington Department of Corrections has no such requirements for its secretary of corrections.

Amos Reed, appointed by Governor John Spellman, served as the first Washington state secretary of corrections from 1981 to 1986. Prior to his position as secretary, Reed served as an administrator in the Oregon Department of Corrections from 1969 to 1975.

Chase Riveland was appointed Secretary of Corrections by Governor Booth Gardner in 1986. He retired in 1997. By 2008, the number of people incarcerated in Washington had more than tripled since the time Riveland first came to WADOC. Lehman's starting salary as WADOC secretary was $93,659 Prior to his appointment, he directed the Nebraska Department of Corrections, where he had climbed through the ranks for over twenty years. He resigned as WADOC secretary amid controversy over probation supervision to take a position as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.

Bernard Warner was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire as Secretary of Corrections in 2011. Warner resigned in 2015 to take a position at a private Salt Lake City corrections industry.

Governor Jay Inslee appointed Dan Pacholke Secretary of Corrections in 2015. Pacholke began his career in WADOC in 1982 as a correctional officer at McNeil Island Corrections Center. Some formerly incarcerated people who had established new lives upon early release were reincarcerated in response to public and political outcry over the early releases. Former secretary of corrections Bernie Warner told the media he did not know about the computer glitch until notified by Governor Jay Inslee's general counsel. However, Pacholke told the media that Warner's assistant secretary knew of the mistaken early release of prisoners as early as 2012. and families of the deceased in each of those cases went on to file wrongful death lawsuits against the agency. One of those lawsuits resulted in a $3.25 million settlement paid out by the DOC. Since leaving WADOC, Pacholke has become the co director at Segregation Solutions. He co authored a report with Sandy Felkey Mullins on segregation practices for the U. S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance titled "More Than Emptying Beds: A Systems Approach to Segregation Reform".

Richard "Dick" Morgan returned from retirement after more than three decades of employment with WA DOC to be appointed by Governor Jay Inslee as acting secretary, effective March 14, 2016. He served in the role of secretary until January 12, 2017. Morgan had previously served as a member of the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board and of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Stephen Sinclair was appointed WA DOC secretary by Governor Jay Inslee on April 25, 2017. He began his career at the agency as a correctional officer and gained progressively greater responsibilities as investigator, sergeant, associate superintendent, superintendent and assistant secretary. As superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, Sinclair created the Sustainable Practices Lab. In addition to his role as secretary, he was the DOC co director of the Sustainability in Prisons Project at The Evergreen State College.

On April 29, 2021, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee appointed Cheryl Strange as the Washington DOC's first permanent female secretary. Prior to her appointment, Strange was Secretary of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.

Non management positions in the Washington Department of Corrections are negotiated by the Teamsters Local 117 labor union. and the Washington Federation of State Employees.

WADOC Honor Guard protocols are governed by WADOC Policy 870.440. Individual WADOC correctional facilities are not required to maintain an Honor Guard. This incident has been called "the Washington Department of Corrections 9/11", as it resulted in dramatic changes to WADOC security protocols and programs for incarcerated people. An annual Behind the Badge memorial run is held in honor of Biendl's service.

In 2012, WADOC correctional officers advocated for improved uniforms in keeping with the standards of uniforms of other Washington law enforcement agencies. Prior to 2012, correctional officer uniforms were made by incarcerated people in industry job positions. This bill removed the requirement that correctional officer uniforms come from Correctional Industries.

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. 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 In 2014, Senators Conway, Jeannie Darneille, Steve O'Ban, Jeanne Kohl Welles, and Annette Cleveland sponsored SB 6399. 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. 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. In the 2017 2018 legislative session an ombudsman bill, HB 1889, passed both chambers of the legislature. 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.

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. A correctional officer was arrested on September 29, 2016.

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). 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. 1984 Sentencing Review Act (SRA) overhauls state's criminal code. 2016 WADOC hires an internal ombudsman.