Audit paints troubling picture of WA’s overcrowded youth prison system

By: Jake Goldstein-Street

Outlets: Washington State Standard

Published: July 20, 2026

Words: 1,498

Last Updated: 1 month ago

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Nearly half of front-line staff at Washington’s overcrowded juvenile detention facilities leave within a year. Many report feeling unsafe, unprepared and unsupported.

That’s according to a sobering, if not shocking, audit of the state’s youth prison system that has faced years of issues stemming from trying to fit too many young people into facilities not set up to hold them all safely.

This capacity strain led to a quadrupling of fights, assaults …

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