„These are the guys who are going to be in the grocery-store line next to your daughter one day,“ he said. „This is an ethic and legal responsibility we have to the community.“ Australia Luxe Angel Distressed Boot
The four-step program starts in an unusual classroom: a row of steel cages, inmates chained to floor-mounted chain hooks beneath metal desks. Earnest Collins, a 24-year-old serving a life sentence for murdering a SeaTac cabdriver, volunteered after two fights earned him trips to solitary.
The program, he acknowledged, also would allow him more visits with his toddler-aged son. Family visits are highly restricted while an inmate is in isolation.
Collins insists he is „open“ to change, reading, at Blakeman’s suggestion, „The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.“
„I wish life were like ‚The Butterfly Effect,‘ “ said Collins, recalling a 2004 movie about a man using supernatural power to alter past events. „I wish I could go back.“
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Before the program started, inmates released from isolation returned more than 50 percent of the time. Since then, 131 inmates have graduated; 107 have not returned.
„It works because it’s rational for someone to choose to live in a way that doesn’t have them locked in a hole,“ said Lovell. „If you give them the choice, it’s a rational decision to make.“
Mental plight
In prison lingo, they are called „dings“ — inmates suffering psychotic episodes, banging on sinks, smearing feces on themselves and their walls, shouting in their solo cells. Inmates with mental illness have historically clustered in isolation units, sometimes because of their behavior, sometimes voluntarily checking into protective custody.
Clallam Bay’s ITP has two staff psychologists, one of the biggest added costs.
Pacholke, the assistant DOC secretary, said the planned isolation unit at Monroe for inmates with mental illness or traumatic brain injuries will include group mental-health care, a result of work with disability advocates. „You want to somewhat create a safe harbor,“ he said.
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Angela Browne of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, said Washington is on the edge of a national wave that is causing prison systems to rethink solitary confinement.
Financial pressures from the recession have contributed, because such units are so expensive. „And there’s a willingness to not just say, ‚Punish punish punish, they deserve it,‘ “ she said.
It’s a complicated shift for a prison.
Richards, the Clallam Bay inmate, had already graduated from ITP when he was interviewed by The Seattle Times last summer. He’d been a member of the Sureños gang. A tattoo across his neck reads, „Test Your Fate.“
He said he’d also graduated from seven anger-management classes „but had little to show for it,“ and was set to be released this summer, after serving 15 years for residential burglaries. So he said he bought into the ITP’s behavioral-change ideas.
„I put my heart into it,“ he said. „No one expects me to gang bang. Everybody respects that I’m out of the crap, out of the politics.“