Inmates’ relatives press Inslee to free up prison space to fight COVID-19 outbreak

Vonquez Del Toro is in the section of the Monroe Correctional Complex where seven of his fellow inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week and he’s scheduled for release in August.

On Saturday, his mother stood outside the Governor’s Mansion with a plea to Jay Inslee.

“Let my son out,” said Deborah Del Toro, an Eatonville resident whose son is serving a one-year sentence for assault. “Put him on lockdown in my house. Put a thing on his leg and let him finish off the last three months in my house,” she added, referring to electronic home monitoring.

She was among about 50 people — most of them relatives of inmates at the Monroe Correctional Complex or other state prisons — who attended a rally to protest the state’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak in correctional facilities.

They urged the governor to release minimum-security inmates in Washington. That would free up space for social distancing — staying at least 6 feet apart — to protect other prisoners from becoming infected with the new coronavirus, they said.

The protestors generally maintained social distancing, and wore masks and gloves. Inslee’s stay-at-home order through May 4 prohibits public and private gatherings of any number of people for “social, spiritual and recreational purposes.”

Inslee didn’t hear their chants or see their signs, which included “Do Better, Jay.” The governor and First Lady Trudi Inslee were at their home on Bainbridge Island, an aide said.

On Friday, the state Supreme Court directed Inslee and Stephen Sinclair, Secretary of the Department of Corrections, to “immediately exercise their authority to take all necessary steps to protect the health and safety” of inmates in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The high court ordered them to report in writing no later than noon Monday on “all steps that have been taken and will be taken.”

Inslee said Thursday that the state is considering releasing nonviolent offenders early from prisons across the state to free up space so inmates at risk of infection can be isolated.

That move would not be enough, said April Franklin, a Tacoma resident whose husband is an inmate in Monroe’s Minimum Security Unit.

“We need to get our Minimum Security Units emptied out so that those can be used for quarantine and isolation areas,” she said, estimating that would free up about 2,000 beds.

Ginny Parham attended Saturday’s rally. Her son is an inmate at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a minimum-security prison in Littlerock that has no inmates or staff members infected with COVID-19.

Last Thursday night, the day after the disturbance at the Monroe Correctional Complex, about 30 inmates at the Cedar Creek prison stayed in the recreation yard until their requests for safe living conditions during the state’s COVID-19 outbreak could be heard.

Parham and her daughter-in-law, Ciara Nobles, said they drove to the Cedar Creek prison. After being asked by two sets of guards why they were on a road close to the perimeter, Superintendent Alfred Smack escorted them near the gate so the inmates could talk. Nobles said Smack was “thoughtful, respectful and kind.” He couldn’t be reached for comment.

In a brief video of the peaceful protest, the inmates say “we don’t want to die” and “we just want to be heard.”

Asked at a Friday press conference about his message for relatives concerned about incarcerated family members, Inslee said, “Their concern for their loved ones is every bit as deep and worthy of respect as anybody else in the state of Washington in or out of our correctional facilities.

“I think we can all imagine if you had a son or a husband in one of these correctional facilities and you have limited communication with them, the frustration and the anxiety that would cause. It’s necessarily deep and we understand and we honor it,” the governor said.

Later on Saturday, about 25 people gathered on the steps of the Legislative Building for a candlelight vigil to support state prison inmates.

Among them was Davina Kerr, a Tacoma resident whose fiance is an inmate at the Airway Heights Corrections Center near Spokane.

“If it gets to the point where inmates are dying, we will take whatever necessary steps to get DOC and the Governor to be held accountable,” she said.

This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 5:41 PM.