The former head of Washington’s juvenile detention system alleges she was fired in retaliation for repeatedly warning of the dangers of crowding in the state’s youth prisons.
Felice Upton, who was assistant secretary of juvenile rehabilitation at Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, oversaw the state’s two youth detention centers, Green Hill School in Chehalis and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie.
After five years at the agency, Upton was fired in April without explanation. Last week, she filed a claim for $4.75 million in damages alleging she was terminated for being a whistleblower about deteriorating conditions in the facilities. The claim serves as a precursor to a lawsuit.
“DCYF has neglected long-term solutions in favor of short-term actions that are only costing taxpayers more money without addressing the underlying issue,” Upton said in a statement Tuesday.
DCYF Secretary Tana Senn said late Wednesday that Upton’s concerns “were in no part a factor in the personnel and organizational changes I made in executive leadership when I joined as the new head of DCYF.”
In Upton’s tenure, state law changed to send young adults convicted of crimes to youth detention instead of adult prison until age 25. This caused the population in the state’s facilities to balloon.
Last year, the crowding reached the point that DCYF transferred 43 men to an adult prison and temporarily stopped taking in new people at Green Hill.
Since Upton’s ouster, the state...
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