The Washington State Penitentiary facility and its administration has been using an unsanitary, hazardous security practice with its outdated shower procedures. WSP facility units 6 & 8, communal shower rooms have only 16 active shower heads per each shower room with no individual control of each independent shower heads that inmates could adjust. The shower rooms also lack control of hot or cold water adjustments.
On a daily basis, units 6 & 8 conducts its unit showers at only two periods: 8:30 to 9:30 am, and 7:30 to 8:30 pm approximately. There are 120 cells that house 4 men each with a total capacity to hold 480 inmates per housing unit. On a daily consistent basis there are usually more than forty inmates congregated in the shower room to utilize 16 shower heads for 10 minutes, which everyone is expected to shower. After the 10 minute period the water is turned off by a staff officer who sits in an enclosed booth to monitor the showers.
This herding and over-crowding has and is causing tension and frustration among inmates that are forced to follow this practice using this shower area. Nearly a year ago a riot incident occurred behind this same dangerous issue. On 4/23/04, six inmates, three whites and three Blacks, engaged in a brutal battle over shower access.
This violent incident escalated into racial tension that infected the whole institution and caused other alterations that almost instigated a full fledged riot.
The WSP administration has been showing total institutional indifference for years over this issue. It is not only an unhygienic practice, but also a sever security issue that bolsters victimization, sexual assault and homosexual rape that has been an epidemic in the WDOC system. The use of this type of communal shower system fosters tension and belligerent behavior.
This problem could be immediately remedied by releasing only 16 inmates at a time to utilize the 16 shower heads at 10 or 15 minute intervals. For a permanent remedy the shower area should be reconstructed and modified for individual shower stalls to relieve congestion. This is the only state facility that has communal showers.
These upgrades and changes in a new shower procedure and modifications is in the mans of the WSP administration budget for what they don't pay for now they surely will be paying for later at a much higher cost.
We, the inmates confined at WSP, have to endure this daily forced congestion of showering. We are already addressing this matter through the appropriate levels of complaint to exhaustion only to receive no relief. We are also seeking outside support and help on this issue in the form of letters of complaint and concern. Email to OCO DOC Deputy of Corrections, Eastern Regional administrator, Washington legislature officials, or any agency that can compel the indifference of this administration to make immediate change in this policy. Mr. Richard Morgan is the Superintendent of WSP 1313 N. 13th Ave Walla Walla, WA 99362.
--a Washington prisoner, December 2004