WA Corrections Center Fined $60K For Breaking COVID Regulations

ABERDEEN, WA — The Department of Labor & Industries is citing and fining the state Department of Corrections $60,000 for repeated COVID-19 safety violations at an Aberdeen correctional facility.

Since the pandemic began, four Washington state Department of Corrections employees have died of COVID-19. Of those, three were employed at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.

According to a release from L&I, the agency sent its inspectors to check out the Stafford Creek Corrections Center after its second employee death, in June 2020. While their inspectors investigated, a second employee tested positive in mid-July, and passed away a month later. Before that, a Stafford Creek employee had died of COVID-19 in December 2020.

The Stafford Creek Corrections Center is also home to an outsized number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in inmates: Per the latest update from the DOC, there have been 1,244 confirmed COVID-19 cases among Stafford Creek Corrections Center's inmate population and five deaths due to COVID-19— nearly a third of all Washington's COVID-19-related inmate deaths.

During its investigation, L&I says it discovered that Department of Corrections staff had not enforced procedures for social distancing, and had not made sure that employees were wearing facial coverings or masks while on the job. Stafford Creek Corrections Center had already been fined $9,000 once before for failing to enforce mask use, so L&I says it upped its fine to $60,000 for "willful serious violation" of COVID-19 safety protocols.

Since then, L&I says the facility has taken several steps to come into compliance, enforcing mask wearing and proper social distancing, as well as installing plexiglass safety barriers in cubicles, rerouting traffic for less interpersonal contact, and requiring a manager to monitor surveillance video to better ensure mask use at all times. DOC data shows there have been no new confirmed COVID-19 cases at the facility in the last 30 days.

Because COVID-19 spreads better in enclosed spaces, prisons, jails and other correctional facilities have been under increased scrutiny during the pandemic. As of the latest update from the Department of Corrections, there have been 7,019 COVID-19 cases in Washington inmates since the pandemic began, 16 of which were fatal. There have also been 2,146 cases in DOC staff, including above-mentioned four fatalities.

Attorneys and community advocates continue to call on Washington state to do more to protect the inmate population, raising concerns about overcrowding in cells, failures to enforce mask use, limited support for hygiene needs and the use of solitary confinement as medical isolation.

"DOC's strategy for attempting to control the virus in prisons remains placing these facilities in lockdowns that result in frightening and inhumane conditions," said Nick Allen, deputy director of advocacy at Columbia Legal Services at a conference calling for action last December. "People are confined in crowded cells for nearly 24 hours per day. They have limited access to restrooms. Food is served cold and infrequently. Communication with loved ones is severely restricted."

Related: As Coronavirus Surges In WA Prisons, Advocates Call For Action