Hundreds of times in the past six years, inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women have tested positive for illegal narcotics. See our report here.
Below is a Q&A with Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay.
When an offender tests positive for an illegal narcotic, WCCW's procedure is as follows:
- The UA test is given by two staff members. The role of the 2nd staff member is to confirm the results.
- If positive, the staff member(s) involved with the urinalysis (UA) have a nurse verify that the offender is not on any medications listed on the "Medication Certification" form that are known to cause a "false positive."·
- The testing staff member(s) photograph the positive cup or test strip and submits the photo as evidence. This practice began in January 2016 when the new evidence policy went into effect.
- Once the steps above are completed, the offender is then placed on pre-hearing confinement.
- Finally, the hearings officer will conduct the hearing regarding the 702 WAC violation:
- If guilty, the hearings officer will issue a sanction in accordance with the sanctioning guidelines.
- If the offender is found not guilty, the findings will be documented and the offender is released from segregation.
Is the offender that tested positive offered chemical dependency services?
- The hearings officer has the ability to make recommendations to the Facility Risk Management Team (FRMT) for review for professional chemical dependency services to be provided by the agency's chemical dependency contractor.
Are such services mandatory?
- If an offender is referred to FRMT, the service would be considered mandatory programming. Failure to participate in the program would result in a serious infraction.
What is the protocol when there are multiple positive drug tests in succession?
- If an offender is found guilty of additional WAC violations for drug use, the level of their administrative sanction becomes increasingly advanced. The serious infraction sanctioning guidelines does take the offenders personal infraction history into account.
What other chemical dependency programs does programs do you offer offenders surrounding chemical dependency?
- With the change in the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) administration in fall 2015, the facility has increased chemical dependency programming in 2016. Recently, WCCW had four Intensive Out-Patient (IOP) groups serving 48 offenders. Through the IDT, this effort has increased by 12 offenders (next bullet). The IOP Groups are 2 hours per session. A rough estimate would be 240-300 women per year. Discharges, behavioral issues, and other unforeseen factors will cause the numbers to fluctuate.
- The program, known as Intensive Day Treatment (IDT), is comprised of groups that meet five hours per day, and those sessions are broken into two hour and three hour sessions. Once they reach maximum capacity, the groups will serve approximately 60 inmates daily over the course of approximately 12 weeks.
- Through Community Involvement Volunteer programs, WCCW offers Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Celebrate Recovery.
- Outside of chemical dependency, WCCW offers an evidence-based program called "Moving On." The class is a 26-session, 52 hour program. The primary goal of "Moving On" is to provide opportunities for women to mobilize and enhance existing strengths and to access personal and community resources.
In an effort to reduce the availability of drugs within WCCW, there are a number of steps taken to affect the ability to introduce contraband. Those include:
- The Intelligence and Investigations Unit monitors activity to establish introduction through telephone use.
- Offender cells are routinely and randomly searched by correctional officers to identify all forms of contraband.
- Decisions are made to utilize the facility Emergency Response Team (ERT) to conduct extensive searches of specifically identified areas in which contraband is believed to exist. During these searches, the use of canines that are trained in drug recovery are often utilized.
- Procedures exist in which staff and volunteers are randomly searched throughout the day.·
- Procedure exists in which visiting staff closely monitor individuals suspected of contraband introduction.
- Various types of searches of an individual's person are conducted throughout the facility.
Outside law enforcement are contacted for serious events. In the case of those serious events, Pierce County is first called for response, and then state patrol is called if Pierce County is unresponsive for whatever reason. The agency hasn’t found additional written document of these contacts.