What’s going on at Coyote Ridge? COVID cases and deaths demand answers | Editorial
A state report claiming the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center botched its handling of COVID-19 is troubling enough. Coupled with the recent death of a 30-year-old inmate who may have died from a head injury, we have to ask:
What the heck is going on?
Public confidence in the management at the prison in Connell is shaky at best. From a distant perch, it appears to be in need of either more help or new leadership. Perhaps it needs both.
Or, at the very least, better communication with the public and the families of employees and inmates.
Washington State Department of Corrections officials should have been more forthcoming months ago when it became apparent the facility was in crisis.
Now, at least, we have a better idea of what went wrong thanks to the Office of Corrections Ombuds, an independent watchdog over the state’s corrections system. Recently, it released its findings about how Coyote Ridge officials managed the virus over the spring and summer.
The results of the investigation are damning.
Guards were not required to wear masks, there were delays in testing when inmates reported feeling ill, people who were close to inmates with the virus were not quarantined or tested, and the facility’s medical director was left out of the prison’s “incident command post” which manages the facility’s COVID-19 response, according to The Seattle Times.
It also appears that when the state DOC Chief Medical Officer showed up to help, the chaos did not go away. Coyote Ridge staff felt the “left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing,” the Times reported.
And worse, in June when a hospital nurse from Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland called the prison to get permission to perform a medical procedure on a very ill inmate, her calls went unanswered.
Eventually, the patient’s condition worsened and the procedure was performed anyway without the prison’s consent. The inmate died four days later. While it has been determined the delay did not contribute to the man’s death, it is still appalling that a hospital nurse — who tried four times — was unable to get in contact with staff at Coyote Ridge.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases this year at Coyote Ridge is up to 313 as of Dec. 3, according to the state DOC.
On Nov. 20, the Tri-City Herald reported the number of COVID cases at the facility in Connell was 292, so the virus is continuing to spread.
Appallingly, Coyote Ridge has had far and away the most COVID-19 cases of any other correctional facility of its kind in the state.
Other than the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, other state correctional facilities have COVID case numbers that range from zero to 88.
Located about 30 miles north of Pasco, Coyote Ridge is a minimum- and medium-security facility with capacity to house up to 2,468 men considered less dangerous than those held at maximum-security prisons.
Washington state’s prison system has had three inmates die of COVID-19 so far this year, and two from Coyote Ridge. The other was a Walla Walla inmate.
And last month, a 30-year-old Coyote Ridge inmate died at Kadlec, four days after he was admitted to the hospital. Initial reports say his cause of death could have been a head injury.
This tragedy only adds to the seemingly, disturbing appearance of mismanagement at Coyote Ridge.
Being sent to a facility like Coyote Ridge should not result in death. The inmate who recently died at Kadlec was serving a sentence of less than four years.
In addition, a COVID outbreak at the prison is bound to eventually affect the community. Employees come and go. A virus will come and go with them and spread beyond the prison walls.
Right now we only know what went wrong. We need to know if anything is going right.
State officials need to do a better job communicating what is being done to improve safety protocols at Coyote Ridge — not only to protect the inmates and prison staff, but the community as well.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 12:30 PM.