From the Apr 27 – May 3, 2000 issue

News

That'll Teach 'Em

DOC Pays Black Guards $250,000

by Phil Campbell

MAINTAINING A RACIST environment comes at a price, and the Washington Department of Corrections knows what it is: $250,000. The department recently settled out of court with several current and former African American prison guards, who accused the department of condoning racist behavior at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center.

The guards, who had originally demanded $500,000 as part of their lawsuit, said they were subject to a host of bad behavior: denied promotions, racial epithets like "coon," and threats. The guards said that some co-workers at the remotely located Clallam Bay prison had taken to calling Martin Luther King Jr. Day "Happy Nigger Day," and that a handful of white guards bragged in front of others about associations with hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

As with most out-of-court settlements, the department refused to accept liability or fault for the problems the black guards encountered, so it's unclear whether anything will actually change at the prison. And the DOC included a caveat in the settlement that all but insured that the matter wouldn't be discussed further. In return for the money, plaintiffs in the case agreed not to "directly or indirectly" initiate any contact with the media regarding this case or its settlement (The Stranger found out about the settlement after a phone call to the plaintiffs' attorney, Michael Schwartz). Plaintiffs are also encouraged to refrain from using "inflammatory allegations or disparaging comments or statements" against their former employer.

If department officials have any disparaging comments of their own, they aren't publicizing them. They didn't return phone calls to The Stranger. Maybe they'll have more to say when it comes time to settle a similar case filed last year against the DOC by employees of the Washington Corrections Center at Shelton.