The ACLU of Washington and Grays Harbor County have agreed to a settlement in the lawsuit filed by the mother of a now 17-year-old boy who the ACLU said “was repeatedly put into solitary confinement, subjected to filthy conditions, and denied adequate food while in the Grays Harbor County Juvenile Detention Facility.”
Under the settlement, the county will change its juvenile detention policy so that it is consistent with the rules of the state juvenile prison system. The state policy requires that, if involuntary isolation is used at all, it must be only a temporary means to address an immediate threat of harm, escape or substantial disruption.
The ACLU-WA filed the lawsuit in March 2017 on behalf of plaintiffs known in the lawsuit as Theresa Doe and her son M.D. According to the ACLU, M.D. was repeatedly detained in the Grays Harbor County Juvenile Detention Facility for a period spanning three years, (between 2013 and 2016) largely for minor probation violations.
The ACLU described the situation this way: Detention staffers placed him in solitary confinement more than 40 times for a total of about 75 days. At various times he was locked in his cell for at least 23 hours a day, had all items removed from his cell, was barred from contact with other people and had family visits cancelled. During one eight-day stretch, he was locked in a padded cell that was spattered with food and blood, with a feces-covered grate over a hole that had been used as a toilet and was given only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and water. M.D. was locked in solitary confinement for minor infractions like talking back, leaving a glob of toothpaste on the door to his room, passing notes, spilling water, being rude and cursing.
Superior Court Judge David Edwards, who handles juvenile cases, said the ACLU’s description of the case as just one example of a longstanding problem involving a lot of juvenile offenders is “false, and I believe they know it is. There was a single incident that occurred that involved this young man that violated the policies of our facility.”
Edwards said it is true the county agreed to make the changes, based on state Department of Social and Health Services Juvenile Rehabilitation standards, but the set policy of the detention center already featured more strict guidelines for the use of solitary confinement.
“Those rules of isolation allow kids to be confined for longer periods of time with less time out for recreation than our policy,” said Edwards. “We went ahead and modified them anyway because they asked us to.”
Edwards said M.D.’s behavior wasn’t simply the minor infractions the ACLU claims.
“He was part of a group that was extremely disruptive of all our activities, including school, and completely refused to abide by instructions,” he said. “The detention director got frustrated and picked out what he thought was the leader of this group and placed him in a padded cell for four nights and five days.”
The padded isolation cell is designed to house juveniles who are violent, often toward themselves, said Edwards. It’s a room where such juveniles are left to calm down, sometimes for 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes for several hours, depending how long the juvenile displays violent behavior.
“The description of the room was wrong. It was not a dank, feces covered cell, it was like all the other rooms, except it did not have a toilet and had padded walls,” said Edwards. “The young man was let out hourly to use the bathroom, showered daily, and had an hour a day to exercise. This was not some torture chamber.”
Edwards did concede the length of time M.D. was left in solitary was in blatant violation of the center’s policies, but argues the young man was allowed to participate in most all the center’s activities except for school, where “he hadn’t been in a while because he had been so disruptive,” he said.
“You can have the best policies in place and it doesn’t guarantee that someone isn’t going to exercise poor judgment,” he said. “It’s my belief there was nothing wrong with any of our policies, we just had an employee who went off the reservation and exacted discipline not authorized by our policies.”
The then detention director, Gerald Murphy, and another administrator, Greg Reynvaan, were both disciplined for their actions. Murphy was placed on probationary status and, according to Edwards, when Murphy failed to follow the terms of his probation he was terminated.
The ACLU called the settlement a victory for the rights of juvenile offenders.
“This settlement sends a strong message to counties across the state that their policies and practices cannot violate the constitutional rights of youths in detention,” said ACLU-WA Senior Staff Attorney Nancy Talner. “Solitary confinement is inhumane. Longstanding research shows it profoundly harms children, so we were shocked to find it being used in a juvenile detention facility in Washington state routinely, repeatedly, and for a prolonged time period.”
