Since becoming superintendent of Echo Glen Children’s Center in April, it is clear to me: Transformation is happening here, but headlines often overshadow that work.
A recent Seattle Times editorial (“Tucked away in a forest prison, kids at Echo Glen have been forgotten,” Sept. 28) described the young people at Echo Glen as forgotten and the facility as a warehouse for kids. That is far from the truth.
A few weeks ago, I witnessed two high school graduations on campus. That is only possible in the carceral setting when you have educational partners like the Issaquah School District and juvenile rehabilitation staff that work hard to get young people to class, keep them motivated and provide them with tools for their future.
Most young people at Echo Glen have short sentences and are significantly behind in school. The primary goal at Echo Glen is to help them get back on track with their education so they can succeed in their communities.
Echo Glen staff, the Issaquah teachers, partners like FareStart and volunteers such as Friends of Echo Glen show up for these young people daily to provide education and recreational programming, mental health support and job training.
Gardening may not be a course anymore, which may be cause for complaint for those who enjoyed it; however, students have more robust high school courses compared to five years ago — courses that include culinary training, personal finance, zoology, anthropology, creative writing and ceramics.
Of course, there are some gaps and ongoing challenges across juvenile rehabilitation. For example, there is a lack of programming for adult women at Echo Glen. Unlike young men who transfer to Green Hill after aging out of Echo Glen to continue their education, young women remain at Echo Glen until they turn 25. We do not have a robust and consistent catalog of college courses for them. For those who transfer to state corrections custody for the remainder of their sentence, the college courses they have taken are often nontransferable.
What the state Department of Children, Youth and Families should do is find partners who can offer in-person programs for certifications, degree pathways and trades that serve this small population of women. In looking at how we can expand programming, one of the challenges is finding organizations willing to send staff to Echo Glen to work with five to 10 women at a time. Although we have offered online courses in the past, we have found it to be a security risk.
Echo Glen also needs a fence to surround its campus for added security and safety. Over the past year, our staff obtained the necessary permits, site visits and bids to get this project rolling. No broken promises; the only thing we broke was ground last month.
We welcome more options for young people at Echo Glen, and we continue to be grateful for the organizations that partner with us to support growth, learning and development. Whether it is participating in a podcast through Bridge Music Project, serving coffee at the youth-run cafe, training rescue dogs or playing in a basketball league with a local high school, young people at Echo Glen are not sitting around with nothing to do thanks to those partnerships.
In fact, some may be surprised that I am describing a juvenile rehabilitation facility. And for those who have read the headlines over the years, they may be shocked by how much can change in a few years.
So just like the young people at Echo Glen are not defined by their past but by the rehabilitative work they put in to build a brighter future, we ask that Echo Glen, its staff and partners be defined by the lives we impact, the futures we shape and the hope we instill.
