By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network Prison reforms were among the many issues considered by lawmakers in Olympia this year. But, once again, measures aimed at resentencing and solitary confinement […]Read More
By: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network Keeping people in Washington’s prisons has gotten more expensive in recent years. The state is one of several where costs per prisoner have climbed […]Read More
Larch staff have pushed back against the closure of the minimum security since plans were announced this summer, including filing a lawsuit that they hoped would pause the closure. A […]Read More
When Travis ComesLast was 20 years old, he was on the run from juvenile detention. He and a friend were looking for ways to get some cash so they could skip town. But during what he describes as a drug deal gone bad, ComesLast shot and killed a man.Read More
Oregon voters passed a measure that strips language from the state’s constitution allowing for slavery and involuntary servitude when used as a punishment for a crime. Notwithstanding more than 500,000 people voting to keep the language, unofficial returns Tuesday night indicated that the measure was passing by a clear margin.Read More
Under Washington's new Mental Health Sentencing Alternative, judges will have the option to sentence a person to community supervision and treatment in lieu of prison.Read More
For the second time in less than a year, Washington’s Corrections Ombuds (OCO) is warning that the state’s prison system needs to do more to prevent inmate suicides. In a 15-page investigation released Monday, the OCO found that two inmates died by suicide in 2020 after prison staff failed to recognize signs of mental distress and didn’t follow suicide prevention policies.Read More
Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed a bill automatically restoring voting rights to people who have been released from prison after committing felonies, even if they are still on parole — a measure sponsored by a lawmaker who was herself formerly incarcerated.Read More
Covering a bill making its way through Olympia that could impact the voting rights of 26,000 people.Read More
Like many Americans, people behind bars are waiting to see if they will be getting checks from the federal government as part of the new stimulus bill -- provided it passes Congress this month as expected. The majority of incarcerated people in Washington and Oregon were likely eligible for the first two rounds of relief money.Read More
"Look at all the wisdom, look at all the heart that is imprisoned in our society," says Hank Willis Thomas, cofounder of the art installation project.Read More
Coyote Ridge has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases of any Washington state prison. The outbreak is concentrated within the Medium Security Complex portion of the prison, which houses more than 1,800 inmates. The total prison population is typically more than 2,400.Read More
The justices, in a 5-4 decision, said that the prisoners who had sued failed to show that the Department of Corrections was not properly addressing the risk of COVID-19.Read More
Gov. Jay Inslee and the Washington State Department of Corrections released their emergency plan to keep inmates safe from COVID-19 on Monday, after a back-and-forth of lawsuit responses between the state and Columbia Legal Services.Read More
A large disturbance Wednesday evening at the Monroe Correctional Complex was likely triggered by rising tensions over COVID-19, according to the Washington Department of Corrections. So far, six inmates at the facility have tested positive for the virus.Read More
A prisoner at the Monroe Correctional Complex has tested positive for COVID-19, making him the first incarcerated individual in a Washington prison known to have contracted the virus.Read More
The risk that COVID-19 could get into a prison is high, as is the potential for it to spread quickly because of tight spaces, shared quarters and dense populations. Adding to the danger is the fact Washington prisons – with nearly 17,000 inmates -- are at 100 percent of capacity. Read More
Umatilla County is home to two large state prisons, which hold more than 3,500 inmates between them. The petitions are a last resort for inmates who need things like medical equipment and procedures that have been denied.Read More
Legislation to automatically restore the voting rights of convicted felons when they are released from prison has died unexpectedly in the Washington Senate. Majority Democrats abruptly ended debate on the controversial bill Wednesday evening when they realized they lacked the 25 votes needed to pass the measure.Read More
The move will free Blagojevich from federal prison four years before he is scheduled to be released. He is among 11 people receiving clemency, the White House says.Read More
Imagine taking someone’s entire life story and compressing it into a span of a few hours to determine whether they’ve changed for the better. That’s the clemency process in a nutshell. Read More
Nearly three years after the state of Illinois agreed in a court settlement to revamp mental health care in prisons and provide better treatment, a judge says the care remains "grossly insufficient."Read More
As flames consume parts of California, an unexpected group of firefighters has put their lives at risk to protect communities: prison inmates. For $2 per day — and another $1 an hour when battling fires — qualified inmates can volunteer to help authorities combat fires.Read More
Growing up, Gary Kempler remembers watching flocks of bighorn sheep near his hometown of Clarkston, Washington.
Now, as someone who is incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary, Kempler is in the Sustainability in Prisons Project. He’s working to help bighorns — through domestic sheep production.Read More
Earlier this month, nearly half the inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla staged a hunger strike. It ended after five days. The inmates were protesting the quality of prison food. It’s an issue that has been simmering in Washington prisons for years.Read More
On January 25, 1997, Cecil Emile Davis, a “violent offender” on state supervision, broke into the Tacoma home of 65-year-old Yoshiko Couch.Read More
Since 2011, Washington’s prison system has deported 339 convicted felons instead of locking them up. The deportations are part of a voluntary program designed to reduce prison costs.Read More
In 2014 and 2015, Washington's prison system experienced a spike in inmate suicides. During those two years 11 inmate deaths were ruled suicides, giving Washington one of the highest prison suicide rates in the country. Austin Jenkins has spent the past year investigating how this happened and how the prison system responded.Read More
