WA pays $180K to fired head of youth prisons who alleged retaliation

Washington state is settling for $180,000 with the former head of the state’s youth prison system after she alleged she was fired for raising concerns about longstanding overcrowding.

Felice Upton, then assistant secretary of juvenile rehabilitation at Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, was fired in April 2025, without explanation, after five years at the agency. In her role, she oversaw the state’s then-two youth prisons: Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie and Green Hill School in Chehalis.

Upton alleged Secretary Tana Senn fired her for being a whistleblower.

During her tenure, conditions became increasingly dangerous in the state’s juvenile detention system, especially at Green Hill School. There, overcrowding contributed to a facility wrought with fights and drugs, as well as more time isolated for the young men held there. Staff shortages undercut programs that tend to make juvenile facilities more appealing than adult prisons. 

A state appellate court last year ruled the overcrowding at Green Hill violated state law.

A scathing state audit also recently found steep staff turnover, though state officials say conditions are improving. 

The crowding came after state lawmakers changed law to send young people convicted of crimes to youth detention instead of adult prison until age 25.

Upton also pointed to the closure of Naselle Youth Camp, another juvenile detention center in Pacific County. Upton said she learned of the planned closure on her first day as assistant secretary in 2021. She told agency leaders that Echo Glen and Green Hill couldn’t provide the capacity to make up for the closure, according to a claim Upton filed against the state last year. She reportedly presented proposals to address this, but they were ignored.

Naselle shuttered in 2022. 

A year later, her warnings had become reality, according to her claim. In September 2023, she briefed agency higher-ups, including then-Secretary Ross Hunter, on the unconstitutional treatment of the detained youth and unsafe conditions for staff due to crowding. She continued to warn of the conditions over the next year.

“There were other ways she believed to try to address these issues that would have assured both the youth who are in custody are being dealt with in an appropriate manner and that taxpayer dollars aren’t being wasted,” said Upton’s lawyer, Toby Marshall.

In response, agency leaders downplayed the problems and excluded Upton from key decisions about juvenile detention, Upton alleged. Hunter faced calls for his resignation after transferring 43 young men from Green Hill to an adult prison, and suspending intakes at Green Hill. 

Upton reported she also complained to the governor’s office of toxic work conditions and inequitable treatment of women and employees of color, leading to an investigation. She felt her treatment was retaliation for raising concerns.

Upton reached a $180,000 settlement with the state in late May.

As is customary, the state is not admitting fault as part of the agreement and still disputes Upton’s claims. 

The Department of Children, Youth and Families declined to comment on the settlement. Senn, who became secretary in early 2025, said last year that Upton’s concerns “were in no part a factor in the personnel and organizational changes I made in executive leadership when I joined as the new head of DCYF.”

The final settlement is far from the $4.75 million Upton was seeking last August when she filed her claim for damages with the state, a precursor to a lawsuit filed in court. 

Marshall acknowledged Upton’s case was “challenging,” given her leadership job at the agency was to raise issues, making it hard to show she was a whistleblower.

“We believe in Ms. Upton’s claims, but recognize it would’ve been difficult to prove liability,” Marshall, of the Seattle-based Terrell Marshall law firm, said Wednesday.

Upton declined to comment on the settlement Thursday.

Upton started out at the agency as superintendent at Echo Glen. She was assistant secretary for nearly four years before her ouster. Before that, she worked at the state Department of Corrections, which runs Washington’s adult prison system.

She’s now working as an associate principal at Health Management Associates, focusing on improving criminal justice outcomes.

Jennifer Redman, the former superintendent at Green Hill, replaced Upton as assistant secretary.

Overcrowding has eased with the opening of a smaller facility last year on the grounds of an adult prison in Aberdeen. That detention center, Harbor Heights, acts as a release valve for the overpopulation, taking young men from Green Hill. At the end of July, 182 people were held at Green Hill, the lowest level this year. Its safe operating capacity is 180.

Harbor Heights has seen tumult, as well. The state fired the facility’s first superintendent this spring after an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations.

Source: Washington State Standard

This article was originally published by Washington State Standard.