Before we do that recap, the latest: The union and DSHS on Sunday agreed to a member task force for the purpose of reviewing and revising forensic unit policies and procedures at Eastern State Hospital and Western State Hospital.
Now, the detailed recap:
When state officials and media outlets started the typical scapegoating of Federation members given an impossible job, Eastern State Hospital members struck back.
Working with the state union, they released the following statement on Sept. 18:
The line workers at Eastern State Hospital share the public's outrage over the escape of Phillip A. Paul at the Spokane County Interstate Fair on Thursday.
In the Phillip Paul incident, the hospital workers on the scene at the fair, as they were instructed to do, notified their chain of command within two to three minutes of discovering Paul's escape. It was the administration in Medical Lake that waited some two hours to notify law enforcement authorities.
The ward workers, members of Local 782 of the Washington Federation of State Employees, have repeatedly over the years opposed the administration policies and practices that allow the kinds of "field trips" like the one Paul took to the fair. They believe he was an extreme escape risk and the administration should never have allowed him on the field trip. The workers have unsuccessfully fought to stop the outings for murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane.
Media outlets across the country carried the members' concerns, running stories with headlines like this: "Wash. Union says it warned about field trip danger." Greg Davis, an Eastern State Hospital worker and president of Local 782 in Medical Lake, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday morning (Sept. 21).
The Spokane Spokesman-Review reported Sept. 18:
The forensic ward, known as "2 South 1" is inhabited by mental patients who have been determined by the courts to be not guilty of serious crimes by reason of insanity, or people judged to be incapable of assisting in their own defense.
"He was not the only murderer at the fair yesterday," said Greg Davis, president of Washington Federation of State Employees, Local 782, which represents Eastern State Hospital workers.
Davis said hospital workers "have repeatedly over the years opposed administration policies and practices that allow the kinds of field trips like the one Paul took to the fair."
The union local president said hospital workers accompanying the patients on the field trip notified their superiors at the hospital "within two to three minutes" of discovering Paul's escape.
"It was the administration in Medical Lake that waited some two hours to notify law enforcement authorities," Davis said....
Davis, the local union representative, said that field trips to such public events as fairs, baseball games, circuses and the Ice Capades routinely include "murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane."...
"Several of my members were surprised that Mr. Paul was approved to go to the fair," Davis said. Wilson, head of the hospital, said Paul had been "a fairly model patient." But court documents dated Sept. 4 show the judge overseeing Paul's case continues to harbor reservations over his progress, concluding that Paul still represents "a threat to public safety, because, regardless of the reasons, his condition has deteriorated."
Meanwhile, reporters in Western Washington began wondering if the same concerns existed at Western State Hospital in Lakewood. There followed another series of reports about gaps there. Here's part of the story that appeared on KOMO TV in Seattle:
At Western State Hospital in Lakewood, security guards and mental health workers say the answer is easy: Paul should never have been allowed on a field trip in the first place.
They say no one should be allowed out of the criminal side of the hospital without first consulting them.
"I think the message is that it's a grievous mistake not to engage the workers who actually do the hands-on work," said Carol Dotlich, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees
Last week, at Western, a resident of the criminal unit managed to walk out of the locked facility, but was later found at a nearby mall.
The union says both escapes come at a time the state is cutting security positions -- three from Western's force of 25.
"It was a perfect example of staff being distracted by a manager and one of the supervisors being gone to a layoff briefing of all things; how ironic," said hospital union president Craig Gibelyou.
The bottom line is safe places to work and safe communities. Maybe now the bosses will listen.
Phillip Paul was recaptured Sunday near Goldendale. He's back at Eastern State Hospital.
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