In 2000, the former participants in the Walla Walla experiments settled a $2.4 million class-action settlement from the University. Dr. Paulsen defended the tests stating, “If our work was unethical, then you’d have to say that all the [federal and UW advisory boards] that approved it in those days were completely unethical. . .” Paulsen stated that he chose Washington State Penitentiary for his radiation research because “Prisoners were considered ideal subjects because it would be easy to do follow-up studies. They were a population that wasn’t going anywhere.”