In the summer of 2021, our AVID staff and legal interns conducted monitoring in five of the Washington State Department of Corrections’ main prison facilities: Monroe’s Special Offender Unit, Stafford Creek, Airway Heights, Coyote Ridge, Washington State Reformatory, and Monroe’s Intensive Management Unit. During our trips we focused on solitary confinement units and missioned housing such as the residential treatment unit, the assisted living unit, the senior unit, and the unit for people with cognitive disabilities. On these visits we spoke with people in the dayrooms and at cell front, listening to their systemic concerns and providing in-person advice and assistance. We also discussed DOC’s recent closure plans, the ongoing response to COVID, and what incarcerated people want to see in the coming legislative session. We are now busy alerting DOC leadership to the systemic issues that we identified in our visits and working to build support for sentencing and solitary reforms in 2022!
Images: AVID program staff and legal interns monitoring solitary conditions and speaking with incarcerated people through steel doors at the Monroe Intensive Management Unit.