13 counties are suing DCYF after their decision to temporarily stop taking in youth offenders

WASHINGTON STATE — The organization representing all counties across the State of Washington is suing the state for, what they say, is its failure to care for juvenile offenders legally required to be in the State’s care.

The Department of Children Youth and Families is falling short on the requirements of two state statutes according to the lawsuit from the Washington State Association of Counties states.

One requires DCYF to take custody and supervise offenders held for more than thirty days and another which states a juvenile convicted of crimes must be held in a DCYF facility. On July 5th, DCYF stopped taking in any more inmates without notifying counties beforehand, according to WSAC interim director Derek Young.

“The announcement came as a surprise to all of our members,” Young said, “All of it was done without notice or consultation with county officials.”

The announcement came in the form of a letter from DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter who said staff were struggling to manage the number of people in the facility. A statement in regard to this suit described the situation as “overcrowding.”

“This decision is necessary due to a spike in population at Green Hill School, leading to a deteriorating and dangerous situation.” Hunter said in the letter.

The suit refutes the validity of that argument.

“DCYF’s only excuse—a lack of capacity—is both its own fault and legally irrelevant.” the suit states.

The “fault” is two-fold, Young says.

In 2019, a state law raised the age a person who could be held in juvenile rehabilitation facilities to 25 years old. In 2022, DCYF closed the Nassele Youth Camp facility in Pacific County which housed 120 young inmates.

“Taking no position about whether that was the right thing to do, DCYF presumably knew in 2022 that would affect it’s population in other places.” said Sarah Nagy, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services.

Nagy represents 43 men—who are older than 18 but younger than 25—that were held in juvenile facilities but were moved to adult custody. A court ruling found DCYF was wrong to move those inmates and on Friday those men were moved back to a juvenile rehabilitation center.

“We’re dealing with these two situations, the transfers and the closing of intakes that were taken with absolutely no notice to anybody else involved, on the grounds that this was an unforeseeable, emergency situation and we just don’t think it was.” Nagy said.

On July 19th, DCYF did state it would open up intakes when safety wouldn’t be compromised. The suit says that meant having eight beds available when there are more than eight individuals awaiting transfer to DCYF.

“While DCYF has since acknowledged that it acted ‘too abrupt[ly]’... It has nonetheless continued to violate its clear statutory obligation.” the suit said.

The result has meant youth and young adults convicted of crimes have been held mostly in county jails.

“Putting the burden of overcrowding and safety issues back directly on counties. That to us, was unacceptable.” Young said.

The suit also notes county jails don’t have the programs around education, job training, and mentorship that help a young person succeed after they served their sentence. Those are the exact programs Nagy was trying to return the 43 inmates to, because similar programs are more difficult to access in adult facilities.

“A whole lot of them were one credit away from a bachelor’s degree, who had their associated and were throwing absolutely everything into the educational resources available to them.”

“The educational opportunities and the mentorship opportunities inspire people to work hard in their rehabilitation.” Nagy said.

In a statement responding to this lawsuit, a DCYF spokesperson said, the overcrowding was not only a threat to safety, but to those programs as well.

“Without safety we cannot provide a therapeutic environment and offer programming to young people at our facilities. We anticipated legal actions but hope for a quick resolution based on our shared interests of balancing both public safety and juvenile rehabilitation.” the statement said.

13 counties signed onto the suit, though Young says the suit was filed on behalf of all its members.

A hearing to argue whether or not the freeze should be blocked will be heard on August 14th.

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