Facility Programs

Community Involvement

Giving Back to the Community

Washington Corrections Center (WCC) promotes giving back to the Mason county community in a number of important ways. Each year, thousands of pounds of fresh produce from our garden is donated to our local food banks. WCC staff also gets together a few times a year and helps pack backpacks for the homeless backpack project project. Our maintenance department works closely with Hood Canal Kiwanis to provide plants for their annual plant sale each year and support their community with bus stops made right here in our facility. We even had visitors from France to view our beautiful gardens and landscapes.

Incarcerated Families and the Community

The family members of the training center population, Cedar and Evergreen Units, have the opportunity to be a part of the Local Family Council which is a council that consists of management and the family members and can discuss any concerns the family members may have regarding their loved ones. If you would like to be a member of the council, please see the Local Family Council webpage for more information.

Family Events

Family Friendly Events are organized by our facilities CPPC and consist of a day of being together as a family and building connections together as a family. With a meal, art projects, games and music, the families and the population can sit and enjoy each other together as a family unit. Each event has a theme and can be child or adult focused or both depending on the time of year. These events really help bridge the gap between the incarcerated population and their families and help them mend the relationships that may have been damaged from incarceration.

Reentry into the Community

Our moto at WCC is that the beginning of reentry begins at the beginning of the incarcerated individuals prison sentence. Our specially formulated Evergreen Unit is fully equipped with staff to offer help to the incarcerated who are one year or less from release. The staff work closely with the community to provide release planning, services, and resources to prepare to transition back into the community. This unit also maintains some of the facilities workforce to help them learn the skills they need to hold a job after release. We also offer a Reentry resource fair each year and welcome local employers, educational opportunities and available housing to our facility to provide resources first hand to the population.

Art in Public Places

The Art in Public Places (AIPP) program facilitates the acquisition, placement, and stewardship of artwork in state-funded building projects throughout Washington. The Washington State Legislature established the AIPP program in 1974 to acquire artwork for educational institutions and state agencies, funded by ½ of 1 percent of the state’s portion of construction costs. Today, the State Art Collection includes more than 4,700 artworks.

Totem #6, 1982 | Totem #1, 1981

Serving the Community

The population at WCC is always very eager and excited to help and give back to the community. When the facility offers Fundraisers or Walk-a-thons, the population always gives back the proceeds back to local charities.

They also supply beautiful, handmade quilts to local organizations for auctions- such as adopt-a-pet and purr-pads and blankets to our local kitten rescue. We also donate our beautiful quilts to Stafford Creek Corrections Center’s End of Life Tier for their patients.

Staff and the Community

WCC’s Diversity Council volunteers their time at many different community events around Mason and Thurston County to promote Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Respect in the workplace and in the community. The events range from Ethnic Celebrations, Job Fairs, Forrest Festival Parade, Seattle Pride, Capital Lake Fair, Overdose Awareness Day, Dinosaur Children’s Day, Halloween Spooktacular and Shelton High School Career Expo. Having a presence at these events shows the community that we as prison staff are diverse and give back in a numerous amount of ways.

Sustainability at WCC

Sustainability is one very important mission at our facility. Our Sustainability Project Lab reuses sustainable items to produce works of art to be posted around the facility and donated to numerous auctions. They also strived during the pandemic and supplied our local hospital with over 2,000 masks for adults and children, on top of supplying our population, staff, local tribes, and local organizations. WCC are also proud caretakers of chickens and bees and offer training to our incarcerated population as chicken tenders and apprentice beekeepers.

We also work closely with Sustainability in Prisons Project and Evergreen State College and collect Early Violet Seeds (Viola Adunca) to help restore the Salish lowland prairie lands and help repopulate the endangered Oregon Silver spot butterfly population. To see our full list of programs and services provided regarding sustainability, please visit Sustainability in Prisons Project - WCC.

Volunteer Programs

At WCC, our volunteer program consists of over 120 committed and valued volunteers who promoted positive change, personal growth, and successful reentry into society. Our programs include: Religious programs such as but not limited to- Living Stones Prison Congregation, Ambassadors for Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Catholic Bible study groups. We also offer secular programs which consist but not limited to- Writer’s Group, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Yoga behind Bars, and Veteran’s group. Our volunteers also lead programming such as Bridges to Life. BPC/TEACH programs, Computer lab/Study time, and WCC’s Clothing Closet. Our volunteers are a very important asset to WCC. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please see the volunteer program webpage.

Washington Corrections Center Superintendent

Superintendent Dean Mason

Dean Mason began his Department of Corrections career in 1990 as a correctional officer at the Washington Corrections Center. He became one of the first investigators in the department and further enhanced the work of the Intelligence and Investigations Unit. In 1994, Mason transferred to Cedar Creek Corrections Center as a correctional counselor 2 and then moved to the McNeil Island Corrections Center, where he held a variety of roles. In 2001, his career path took him to Headquarters where he worked as the statewide grievance program specialist and then promoted to program manager in 2002. Since July 2014, he served as the Washington Corrections Center associate superintendent of programs and housing.

Dean earned a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington (UW) Evans School of Public Policy. He has completed several management and leadership courses through the UW Cascade Executive Programs and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government course – Driving Government Performance for Washington State Executives. He is also a graduate of the Washington State Patrol Academy, and the Criminal Justice Training Commission's Correctional Officer and Adult Services academies. He is a proud US Army veteran.