Washington lawmakers confront juvenile detention overcrowding crisis
Overcrowding at Washington’s biggest juvenile detention center has grown to crisis levels over the past year.
A slew of bills in Olympia look to chip away at the problem. Some measures set a cap that, when met, requires officials to transfer detainees to other facilities and give young people the option of moving to adult prisons. Others try to limit how many young people are incarcerated in the first place or provide pathways to early release.
As the population grew over the summer, the state Department of Children, Youth and Families temporarily suspended intakes at Green Hill and Echo Glen’s Children’s Center in Snoqualmie, the state’s medium and maximum security facilities for juvenile offenders.
Around the same time, the state agency transferred 43 young men from Green Hill School in Chehalis to an adult prison, a widely lambasted move that faced a judge’s rebuke and fueled calls for the firing of the department’s former secretary.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/02/03/washington-lawmakers-confront-juvenile-detention-overcrowding-crisis/