Washington State Dept. of Social and Health Services Hit with Lawsuit

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A proposed class action filed against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and others claims Special Commitment Center (SCC) residents with serious mental illness, developmental and intellectual disabilities, cognitive conditions, and brain injuries are “unable to participate in or benefit from the sex offender treatment” offered at the facility. In addition to the state Department of Social and Health Services, the case also names the department’s acting secretary, the SCC itself, and the CEO of the SCC as defendants. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court in Washington by Disability Rights Washington, a non-profit advocacy group for individuals with disabilities, and three named plaintiffs referred to only by their initials who are currently in the custody and care of the SCC.

The case alleges the SCC’s treatment plans acknowledge proposed class members’ problems with participating in treatment as a result of their disabilities, but “nevertheless continue to direct residents to engage in the sex offender programming in order to achieve release.” As a result, the lawsuit argues, some residents are showing little to no progress because of their cognitive limitations.

Similarly, the lawsuit touches on the fact that individuals who display potentially disruptive behaviors caused by their disabilities are left out of the sex offender program until those behaviors are addressed. At issue, the lawsuit says, is that these individuals are not provided with the programming and staff support necessary to truly address problematic behaviors and that they have “been forgotten, languishing in the facility for years, if not decades” without receiving treatment.

From the lawsuit:

“Residents with disabilities are thus placed in a cyclical and impossible treatment regime in which they are directed to successfully participate in sex offender treatment in order to gain release, but denied the individualized and appropriate treatment and support necessary to do so. These residents are instead placed in highly restrictive back-wards of the facility. These wards have been likened to a correctional setting by an independent inspection team, prompting the team to question whether the facility is simply ‘warehousing’ these residents rather than treating them.”