Inside Olympia, with host Austin Jenkins, sits down with Washington Department of Corrections Secretary Tim Lang.
Some key quotes:
“I’ve already started complaining about the lawyers a lot. They’re always telling me what you can’t [do].”
“If you do the business right, don’t worry about the legal side of it … If we’re taking care of people, making effective treatment programs, respecting people’s liberty rights — all the rest of it will follow.”
That’s Secretary Tim Lang on the transition from his longtime role as chief counsel to the Department of Corrections to leading the agency.
In his first extended interview since taking over as Secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, Tim Lang laid out a wide-ranging agenda centered on drug treatment, public safety, and culture change inside state prisons.
Lang, a longtime attorney who previously served as chief counsel to the agency as part of the Attorney General’s Office, acknowledged the scope of the challenge.
“It’s an opportunity to really make a difference,” he told Inside Olympia host Austin Jenkins. At the top of his list: confronting the proliferation of drugs behind bars. “We have to have a comprehensive strategy around drugs in prisons,” Lang said, pointing to both interdiction and expanded substance use treatment as critical.
Recent incidents, including a murder at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center allegedly committed by an inmate under the influence, have intensified focus on contraband. Lang highlighted new tools like body scanners and drug-detecting canine teams, while emphasizing treatment expansion through medication-assisted therapy.
Budget constraints remain a central issue. Lang’s agency is preparing for the closure of Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women and three reentry centers, despite union pushback. He aims to minimize layoffs through attrition and reassignment.
Lang also affirmed his support for the “Washington Way,” a corrections culture modeled after Norway’s rehabilitative approach. “The Washington Way is really focusing on public safety,” he said, adding that treating people humanely improves outcomes on release.
Other topics covered included solitary confinement reform, transgender inmate housing, access to mental health and dental care, and the agency’s move toward an electronic health records system.
Despite limited resources, Lang said he hopes to reduce recidivism and better support reentry. “Our mission is to positively change lives,” he said, “and one of the best ways we can do that is by providing more substance use disorder treatment.”