By The Washington State Office of the Corrections Ombuds Solitary Confinement Research Team (OCO-SCRT).  Angee Schrader, OCO-SCRT Lead Sara Appleton,  Heather Bates,  Zachary Kinneman, Madison Vinson,  E.V. Webb

Solitary Confinement: Part I is the first of three reports on solitary confinement planned for release throughout the coming months. Part I responds to the legislature’s direction to conduct a review of all incarcerated people who had or have been: 1. housed in solitary confinement or any other form of restrictive housing more than 120 days in total, or 2. housed in solitary confinement or any other form of restrictive housing more than 45 consecutive days in Fiscal year 2023 (July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023). Civilian oversight of corrections brings an independent set of eyes and, if done correctly, the values of integrity, respect, collaboration, equity, and courage to bear witness to the ways in which the norms and cultures of carceral systems are rooted in secrecy, a lack of transparency, and rules and regulations. The Washington State Office of the Corrections Ombuds is the only civilian oversight of the Washington state corrections system established in state government with the authority and the responsibility to investigate actions or inactions of the Washington Department of Corrections (WADOC ). The Office of the Corrections Ombuds (OCO) routinely monitors places that are among the most opaque public institutions in our state – the state’s corrections facilities (prisons and reentry centers). In addition to monitoring prisons and reentry centers, the OCO, in its capacity as the statewide prison oversight mechanism, responds to the governor and legislature’s concerns about conditions of confinement and the inherent dangers of living and working inside corrections facilities. Advocates of eradicating the use of solitary confinement in WADOC have waged a multi-year campaign requesting greater attention be paid to what happens to people living and working inside prisons in the state of Washington. Some elected officials have demanded greater accountability and transparency from the WADOC about the use of solitary confinement. Multiple bills calling for a reduction in solitary confinement have been introduced in the state legislature in recent years; however, none have passed out of the legislature. At the end of the 2023 legislative session, seeing that once again, a bill requiring the WADOC to reduce the use of solitary confinement would not pass out of the legislature, a request was made of the Office of the Corrections Ombuds (OCO) to write a report answering a short list of specific questions about the WADOC ’s historical and current use of solitary confinement. This report, Solitary Confinement: Part I, provides a step-by-step answer to the specific questions asked by the Legislature  

Olympia: The Ombudsman, 2024. 421p.