By Jacob Moore
The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.
SEATTLE — A new supplemental budget proposal from Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson would provide additional funding to juvenile rehabilitation efforts, specifically to improve staffing and security at two facilities.
Ferguson announced his proposed supplemental budget on Tuesday, Dec. 23 . The proposed budget and following announcements attempted to address a projected $2.9 billion shortfall. The new proposal includes budget increases to address inflation, tapping climate funds and other money-saving maneuvers.
Also announced, but not turning as many heads, was the proposed $11.6 million increase for Green Hill School in Chehalis and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie.
Following the announcement of the new budget, the governor’s office released a copy of the supplemental budget as well as a fact sheet of “budget and policy highlights.” Both show a more than $12 million increase for the state Department of Children, Youth and Families’ (DCYF) juvenile rehabilitation program.
The governor’s fact sheet specifies that $11.6 million will go to the state’s two most significant juvenile rehabilitation facilities. The money is meant to pay current staff and fund security at the two facilities.
“Funding is provided to DCYF JR for ongoing staff and a one-time security contract at both Green Hill School and Echo Glen Children’s Center to better support the rehabilitative needs and safety of the youth within the facilities,” reads a passage from the Proposed 2026 Supplemental Budget and Policy Highlights document available on the Washington state Department of Financial Management website.
Green Hill School has faced well-documented security issues in recent years as the facility has been operating well over its ideal resident capacity. Security and staffing issues have ranged from violence and drug use within the facility to sexual abuse by corrections staff.
The facility has operated well over capacity for well over a year, with inmate counts numbering more than 200 despite the facility’s safe capacity of 180 residents. Two bills designed to address the overcrowding were introduced during the 2025 Legislature, but they failed to pass.
One bill meant to transfer aged out or noncompliant residents to prison and another meant to speed the process for residents to start on the path out of the facility were proposed by opposite sides of the aisle.
When Republicans refused to support a bill that would increase placements of inmates in community facilities and speed the path to release, majority Democrats returned the favor by killing a Republican-sponsored bill that would transfer inmates not engaging in education or other programs to the Department of Corrections.
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