| Washington State Department of Corrections | |
| Abbreviation | WADOC |
| Patch of the Washington State Department of Corrections. | |
| Logo of the Washington State Department of Corrections. | |
| Badge Patch of the Washington State Department of Corrections | |
| Motto | Working together for safe communities. |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | May, 1981 |
| Preceding agency | Washington Department of Social and Health Services |
| Employees | 8,000 (2009) |
| Annual budget | $1.8 billion USD (2009) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | State of Washington, USA |
| Map of Washington State Department of Corrections's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 71,300 square miles (185,000 km2) |
| Population | 6,724,540 (2010 est.) |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Tumwater, Washington |
| Agency executive | Bernard Warner, Secretary of Corrections |
| Facilities | |
| Work Releases | 15 |
| Prisons | 12 |
| Website | |
| Washington State Department of Corrections Website | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) is a department of the government of the state of Washington. WADOC is responsible for administering adult corrections programs operated by the State of Washington. This includes state correctional institutions and programs for offenders supervised in the community.[1]
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In May 1981, the Washington State Legislature transferred the administration of adult correctional institutions from the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to the newly created Washington State Department of Corrections. From 1955 to 1981, correctional and mental health facilities were managed by DSHS.[2]
The Department’s organizational structure includes five major divisions:
Each division has an Assistant Secretary who oversees the division's operations.[1]
The Secretary of Corrections is the executive head of the Department. The Secretary is appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate.[1]
The Department currently operates 12 adult prisons, of which 10 are male institutions and 2 are female institutions.[3] The Department confines nearly 16,000 offenders in these facilities, with each varying in size and mission across the state.[4]
The Department currently has 15 work release facilities. All but one of these facilities is operated by contractors, who manage the daily safety and security and have oversight of the facilities full-time (24-hours a day, 7-days per week). Department staff are located on-site to assist in supervision, monitoring, and case management of the offenders and monitoring of the contracts.[5]
Offenders housed in work release facilities have progressed from full confinement to partial confinement, and are required to seek, secure and maintain employment in the community, and contribute to their cost of room and board. This model is designed to ensure offenders have employment and housing plans when they are released to communities.[2]
Community Supervision of offenders occurs at varied locations in the community to include: field offices, community justice centers, Community Oriented Policing (COP) Shops and outstations. Offender’s activities in the community are monitored by a Community Corrections Officer to ensure compliance with court, Indeterminate Sentence Review Board (ISRB) and Department conditions of supervision.[2]
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page Web site, since the inception of what is currently the Washington State Department of Corrections, 6 employees have been killed in the line of duty.[6]
Washington’s capital punishment law requires that capital punishment imposed by the state’s courts be carried out at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Procedures for conducting executions are supervised by the Penitentiary Superintendent.[7]
Washington utilizes two methods of execution: lethal injection and hanging. Lethal injection is used unless the inmate under sentence of death chooses hanging as the preferred execution method.[7]
Within 10 days of a trial court entering a judgment and sentence imposing the death penalty, male defendants under sentence of death are transferred to the Penitentiary, where they remain in a segregation unit pending appeals and until a death warrant is issued setting the date for the execution. Female defendants under sentence of death are housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women before being transferred to the Penitentiary no later than 72 hours prior to a scheduled execution.[7]
Since 1904, 78 persons have been executed in Washington, the most recent occurring in 2010.[7]
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