Columbia Legal Services filed a class action complaint against the Washington State Department of Corrections (“DOC”) yesterday on behalf of two clients. The lawsuit challenges the unjust imposition of an extreme form of solitary confinement used on incarcerated individuals housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (“WCCW”).
WCCW (which houses cisgender women and transgender individuals) uses an x-ray body scanner to search the bodies of incarcerated individuals for contraband. This program started as a pilot program to reduce strip searches and to be gender-responsive and trauma-informed. Unfortunately, corrections staff with no medical background, and with limited training, are the ones who interpret the x-ray images. Corrections staff with no diagnostic-imaging training are alleged to be misinterpreting constipation, gas, anatomical variations, and even past surgical material or implanted birth control as contraband.
When an individual is told their x-ray is “positive” for contraband, the consequences are severe and cruel. Instead of providing medical review of a supposed “positive” x-ray to confirm if the interpretation of the x-ray is correct, WCCW places the individual in a form of solitary confinement known as “dry cell” or “contraband watch.”
Dry cell watch begins when prison staff strip search the individual, dress them in a restraint suit with a padlock at the neck and zip ties around each wrist and ankle, and place them in a small solitary confinement surveillance cell with no toilet or running water. The restraints can cause bruising. The suit’s neck is often tight, and extremely uncomfortable. WCCW staff then watch the individual through a large window the entire time they are in dry cell. WCCW keeps the lights on in the cell all day and all night. WCCW staff require individuals to keep their head and hands visible at all times, regularly waking them up with commands to show their hands. WCCW staff do not provide individuals with sufficient drinking water. The conditions often cause individuals significant harm through bruising, infections, despair, panic, humiliation, and cause them to relive past trauma—something the x-ray body scanner pilot program hoped to avoid.
When an individual in dry cell needs to use the bathroom, they are handcuffed and escorted to a special toilet system so that staff can search fecal matter or other waste for passed contraband. WCCW staff refuse to remove the handcuffs when individuals use the toilet, making it impossible for them to clean themselves properly afterwards. This often leads to individuals being left covered in their own menstrual blood or fecal matter for days at a time. WCCW staff only provide showers once every 7 days, and staff rarely permit individuals in dry cell to receive a change of clothing or undergarments. Nonmedical staff sometimes use inaccurate drug tests on fecal matter and bodily substances—for which the tests are not designed—as a basis for extending an individual’s dry cell stay or claiming they were “positive” for drugs.
Although WCCW policy says dry celling should end after 3 bowel movements or 72 hours, whichever happens earlier, the policy allows indefinite dry celling if an individual could have something hidden in their vagina. Lengthier dry celling also occurs for individuals who suffer from constipation or gastrointestinal issues or who have body variations on the x-ray scan that staff falsely believe is contraband.
No WCCW staff trained in diagnostic-image interpretation reviews the x-ray image before an individual is ordered to remain in dry cell for more than 3 days. WCCW has kept individuals in dry cell for as long as 19 days.
Despite WCCW’s failure to recover actual contraband from most of the people forced to endure dry cell placements, DOC has refused to examine or change its practices or examine or audit the numerous false “positive” x-ray readings. DOC also does not have medical staff with diagnostic-imaging training review the images to see whether the individual might be suffering from a medical condition incidentally revealed on the x-ray and mistaken for contraband and that might require medical treatment. Even in cases where an individual has ingested contraband in the form of a balloon or bag of drugs, the dry celling process is dangerous and cruel and likely insufficient to timely prevent an overdose or severe medical consequences.
One of the plaintiffs suing WCCW was in dry cell on three separate occasions; her third stay in dry cell lasted 7 days. She states: “I experienced inhumane treatment while incarcerated at WCCW after being placed in restrictive housing under false pretenses, deprived of basic necessities, and scanned by an individual without sufficient training, and I know many other women have experienced similar treatment. I believe this kind of treatment amounts to cruel punishment, and that the Washington Department of Corrections needs stronger oversight, accountability, and reforms to ensure people are treated humanely and that community custody programs are properly supervised to support both public safety and successful rehabilitation.”
Due to privacy concerns and the sensitivity of the medical information in this case, Plaintiffs are asking the court to proceed in pseudonym as “Jane Doe v. Department of Corrections.” Plaintiffs are seeking changes to DOC’s policies and practices, as well as monetary damages.
“We are not saying that DOC can never use body scanners,” said Alison Bilow, staff attorney at Columbia Legal Services. “The problem is that staff with no diagnostic-imaging training are the final authority interpreting these x-rays. There are also risks that staff can interpret images wrongfully as a form of retaliation. DOC could likely prevent significant harm if it required personnel with diagnostic-imaging training to double-check a staff member’s interpretation of an x-ray image as “positive” for contraband, before taking the drastic step of placing an individual in a dry cell—a type of confinement that comes with its own set of harms.”
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