Currently aged 74, Gary Ridgway aka. the Green River Killer is held at Washington State Penitentiary. This prison is situated in Walla Walla, Washington.
According to FreshersLIVE, the serial killer is kept in a Special Commitment Unit. This particular unit’s purpose is to hold convicts who have an extremely violent track record and can be a threat to themselves or others. To make sure everybody is safe, Ridgway is kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. However, the officials give him an hour outside his cell for exercise.
He is not allowed to interact with other inmates. Furthermore, the only way for him to communicate with his family and legal representatives is via video monitoring. A lot of effort is put into his surveillance because of his notorious crimes. Authorities even consider him a target for other inmates, hence his isolation is highly important. There is also a possibility that he might inflict harm upon himself so for that very reason he is given extra attention.
According to A&E news, a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligence named John McCoy visited Washington State Penitentiary in 2019. However, he was not allowed to meet Green River Killer.
John McCoy said,
“I had a tour of the Washington State Penitentiary with the superintendent in March 2019. During the tour, I was told that Ridgway was in poor health and kept in close confinement. My recollection is that he declines media requests.”
Why is Gary Ridgway called the Green River Killer?
The press named Gary Ridgeway the Green River Killer because the corpses of his first five victims were found in the Green River. This 65-mile-long river is situated in Washington state and is a tributary of the Duwamish River.
He has been convicted of killing 49 people and is serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.