Olympia, WA – “DCYF’s Licensing Division-Child Protective Services (LD/CPS) referred an intake to the Chehalis Police Department in July 2026 that involved a young person accusing a Green Hill Staff (GHS)of providing an illegal substance to a different young person who no longer resides at GHS.”
“Besides this accusation, DCYF had no other evidence that suggested this staff was compromised.”
“When a staff is accused of misconduct at a JR facility, we review information in effort to corroborate the claim to determine a need to refer for further investigation while complying with bargaining requirements.”
“We do not tolerate staff misconduct. Our JR staff frequently collect evidence to hand over to our law enforcement partners along with referrals to help in convictions.”
“DCYF cooperates fully with our law enforcement partners. We have previously communicated to Chehalis PD that any non-JR initiated cases must go through public records. However, law enforcement is not expected to go through the public records process when a case is initiated by CPS. This referral came from CPS."
“Our Public Records team is required to comply with state law and deny any requests that fall outside of the Public Records Act RCW 42.56. This request did not fall under the PRA, and our public records staff appropriately referred Chehalis PD to CPS for records about this case."
“Instead, Chehalis PD reached out to JR staff about this case.”
“In light of this incident and to avoid future misunderstandings, we are communicating with JR staff that requests related to referrals to law enforcement by LD/CPS should be referred to LD/CPS instead of public records."
“We want to be clear; we are fully reporting to our law enforcement partners. We want support from our law enforcement partners when we discover criminal activity.”
“The reality is we’ve made a lot of changes at Green Hill and within JR to improve safety, address contraband, and create consistency and clarity through our behavior management system as mandated by the legislature. As a result, we are seeing fewer incidents that require law enforcement referrals than years prior. This is a positive thing. It means fewer issues at our facilities and less of a strain on local law enforcement.”
“We are looking forward to sitting down with Chehalis PD leaders to work on our partnership.”
Data:
- Green Hill has made 14 referrals to the Chehalis Police Department in 2026.
- Cases include custodial assault and staff misconduct.
###
