By Mitchell Roland
The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.
CHEHALIS, Wash. — Staff at Green Hill School in Chehalis “successfully intercepted a football filled with drugs that were thrown over the fence” of the facility on Monday (Dec. 23), a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), the state agency that oversees the facility, told The Chronicle.
According to prior reports, the event is at least the third time this year that staff have stopped narcotics from being smuggled into the facility via a football.
“As a precaution, searches are being conducted in the area where the football was thrown,” Nancy Gutierrez, a DCYF spokesperson, wrote in an email Monday afternoon. “As part of our protocol, (juvenile rehabilitation) staff have contacted Lewis County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve the drugs.”
The Chronicle has requested additional information on Monday’s incident.
Last week, the facility announced it was in the process of implementing new restrictions and increasing the number of searches at the juvenile rehabilitation facility after staff responded to eight medical emergencies involving contraband in a two-week span at the facility.
“Part of the challenge the facility is facing is that these medical incidents are not due to fentanyl,” DCYF said in a news release. “Instead, Green Hill staff believe they are dealing with synthetic drugs that are harder to detect and easier to introduce on campus — a challenge that correctional facilities are facing across the nation.”
In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses how to combat contraband in correctional facilities.
In January, a spokesman for Gov. Jay Inslee told The Chronicle that DCYF had “a recent incident involving contraband in a football thrown over the fence” that was successfully handled by DCYF staff. The email, dated Jan. 12, does not state when the incident occurred.
In July, a 15-year-old boy was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center for possession of a controlled substance and attempting to introduce contraband after he was suspected of throwing a football that contained approximately nine suspected marijuana vape pens, approximately 6 pounds of suspected marijuana, approximately 1.5 pounds of marijuana “dabs” and two packages of tobacco, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
Green Hill staff reported that a male subject had “attempted to throw an item over the fence and then began walking away,” according to a previous news release from the Chehalis Police Department.
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