Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill in April that changes state law so that residents of Green Hill School can no longer be charged with prison riot, previously a felony charge often brought against juveniles involved in fights at the facility.
House Bill 1815 prevents the charge from being used against residents of juvenile rehabilitation facilities in the future and establishes a process for people charged with the crime in the past five years while serving time in a juvenile facility to be resentenced or have the conviction vacated from their record.
The new law also requires the Department of Children, Youth and Families to institute an infraction system to be used inside juvenile rehabilitation facilities.
Green Hill School and the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office were at the center of discussions on the bill during public hearings, as legislative staff stated that Lewis County accounted for 65% of prison riot charges in the state of Washington between 2005 and 2023.
Data reported by The Seattle Times shows the numbers of prison riot charges by county in 2023 with Lewis County recording 87 charges and Pierce County having the next most with 10 charges.
The numbers are not site-specific and include charges of prison riot against inmates of prisons or jails as well as residents of Green Hill and Echo Glen. Some individuals may have also been charged more than once.
Supporters of the new law say the broad use of the charge has worked against the mission of rehabilitation by being overly severe in punishment for residents and condemning them to time in adult prison for taking part in, or even being the victim, of fights that are not uncommon in correctional facilities.
Testimony from parties opposed to the bill, including representative for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs James McMahan, admitted that the current statute and uses of the charge has flaws, but advocated for adapting the state's prison riot statute instead of restricting its uses.
The bill's prime sponsor, state Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, testified during the bill's two public hearings, presenting his bill as a fix to an unintentional expansion of the use of the prison riot charge.
According to testimony from Peterson and Keri-Anne Jetzer, a representative for the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission, prosecutors were unable to charge residents of juvenile facilities with prison riot before 2021. A law passed that year expanded the definition of correctional facilities to include juvenile rehabilitation facilities for the purpose of expanding medical services. That language change unintentionally expanded the use of the prison riot charge.
“Had that bill not passed, we likely would not be here talking about this today,” Jetzer said.
She said the change the bill makes matches the recommendations from the Sentencing Guidelines Commission.
Peterson said the unintentional change mixed with flaws in Washington’s prison riot statutes resulted in outsized and severe punishments against residents for instigating or even being the victim of fistfights.
Washington state law defines riots as “whenever two or more inmates of a correctional institution assemble for any purpose, and act in such a manner as to disturb the good order of the institution and contrary to the commands of the officers of the institution, by the use of force or violence, or the threat thereof, and whether acting in concert or not.”
Additionally, the language of the law allows for charging inmates or residents that are involved in the riot in many different ways, ranging from being present or aiding in the violence to instigating. The charge is a class B felony when charged against adults and comes with a minimum sentence of one year and maximum of 10 years to be served in a state Department of Corrections facility. With at least 75% of Green Hill residents being at least 18 years old, many charged with the crime could go from serving a few months in Green Hill to serving years in an adult prison.
Speaking to the flawed language of the statute, Jessica Levin, a professor of law at Seattle University, testified during both public hearings for the bill, offering comparisons between Washington's legal definition of a prison riot and the definitions in other states.
According to Levin, Washington is one of six U.S. states that allow for prosecution for riots where fewer than three people are involved. She included that the broad language does not make clear what behavior is being punished and that the statute doesn’t require that defendants worked together or that they acted with the intention of rioting.
“The imprecise way that our statute was written allows prosecutors to use their discretion to charge this crime in a very wide range of circumstances without prescribed boundaries to limit the application of the law,” Levin said. “The result is that young people in JR facilities who are not participating in any form of organized behavior at all are being further penalized.”
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer testified as “other” during public hearings — rather to opposed or in favor — admitting to flaws in the way the prison riot charge is used but arguing that the proposed change does not address the issue. Meyer defended his office's use of the prison riot charge against residents of Green Hill, saying that their intention was to charge the instigators of targeted group fights, not bystanders or victims.
Meyer further advocated for preserving the use of prison riot charges against juveniles, saying that the charge dissuades residents from participating in group violence.
“Typically, it is a fight between two individuals that quickly grows into a fight of 15 to 20, sometimes 30 individuals,” Meyer said. “There has to be a tool for us to be able to combat that. To simply say we can't charge that conduct any longer I think would be a miscarriage of justice, and it would turn Green Hill into a fight club.”
With the new law being instituted immediately due to emergency clauses in House Bill 1815, prison riot will no longer be charged against residents of Green Hill. Instead, similar behaviors will be addressed either through an internal infraction system or through charges of assault or custodial assault, depending on the situation.
When charged against adults, fourth-degree assault, which Meyer said is the most likely charge to be used, is a misdemeanor and results in up to a year in local jail instead of a state prison. Custodial assault is a more severe class C felony used when someone attacks or causes harm to a staff member or volunteer and can result in as much as five years served also in a local jail.
Minor assaults would no longer be charged by the county prosecutor and instead would fall to being heard in a lower court such as the City of Chehalis Municipal Court.
Since the new law went into effect immediately, resentencing and conviction vacations began last month after Ferguson signed House Bill 1815.
During public hearings, Peterson said that he expected there would be more than 100 charges eligible for vacation or resentencing.
Meyer said the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office has already completed resentencing and vacations for the vast majority of those who are eligible, counting as many as 200 charges.
The Department of Children, Youth and Families has not yet released data for how many residents may have gone through the process of resentencing or vacation or if it has resulted in the release of any residents or relocation of any students to community programs.
