The Department of Corrections in Washington state will implement an “anti-racism”
strategic plan
for 2023, aided by its
new
equity, diversity, inclusion, and respect director, Yen Hunyh.
Corrections staff should focus on the actual rehabilitation and punishment of criminals in a way that is informed by statistics and best practices. But the planning document indicates that “equity,” “anti-racism,” and “lived experience” will be prioritized instead.
The corrections department will work with “marginalized people” to learn from them how to run the prison system, according to DOC Secretary Cheryl Strange.
“We often talk about being inclusive from a majority culture perspective, meaning our conversations tend to invite marginalized groups to join the majority,” Strange said. Instead, staff should “seek to be included by marginalized groups in this work.”
In other words, the inmates are being asked how to run the asylum.
Now that the inmates are in charge, it is no wonder that punishments will be reduced. The first problem identified by the planning document is the “overuse of sanctions” against minorities: “The Department of Corrections seeks to eliminate disparities in the way it administers discipline.”
But a later paragraph says not writing enough sanctions could harm racial equity efforts by creating an unsafe environment. “It is also clear that without effective communication and action around this investment, staff may feel targeted and unreasonably scrutinized,” the report states.
“This erroneous perception can lead to some staff writing fewer infractions for Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic men, or women … which could potentially decrease safety for everyone in the environment and does not address the need to fully understand principles of equity, justice, and inclusion,” the report explains.
What does this mean? When racial minorities are treated leniently for violence or other misbehavior, they will likely commit it more often, and those actions will be targeted, many times, against other minorities.
Yet, a subsequent priority aims to fix a “classification” problem in which minorities are treated as more violent than they really are.
This will be solved using “anti-racist and decolonized data.” But the document already said not writing up racial minorities could make the prisons less safe for others, admitting that minorities can be a higher risk than white prisoners.
Perhaps the problem is that staff were using real numbers and not “race-equity” informed data.
Some of the “root causes of disparities” identified included a failure to use a “race-equity lens to inform policy through data” and “evaluating people entering the correctional system by their crime and not who they are as a person.”
But committing a crime, such as murder, robbery, or sexual assault, is part of who they are as a person: someone who breaks the law. That is why they are in the “corrections” system.
While the anti-racism team promises to use “data,” it also promises to “value storytelling” and “elevate stories and lived experiences.” It will use “community-centered data” to consider “how the historical, cultural, and socioeconomic impacts of structural racism and colonization have historically been used to exclude and harm certain members of our community.”
When it comes to employee recruitment, the corrections department wants to help personnel “be their authentic selves,” accomplished through “providing a shared space for employees to learn, find support, and heal.”
The planning document fulfills a
state mandate
by Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) that required government agencies to create their own “anti-racism” agendas. The executive order, like this strategic plan, should be put in solitary confinement, never to see the light of day.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
