Tim Burgess' City View

How Seattle Avoided Spending Millions to Build a New City Jail

The Council will vote in early September whether to approve a new jail services contract with King County through 2030. If approved, the new contract will save Seattle taxpayers approximately $200 million in jail construction costs and multiple millions more in operation costs. Here's the story on how we got here.

In 2008, my first year on the Council, I joined some of my colleagues and told then-Mayor Nickels that we didn't want to build a new City owned and operated jail for our misdemeanor prisoners. At an estimated cost of $200 million, building a jail wasn't a desirable use of our limited resources, especially when we believed that King County should continue to be the region's primary provider of jail services.

No Seattle Jail Needed

King County Executive Dow Constantine announced an agreement this morning on regional jail services that eliminates the need for Seattle to build our own jail for misdemeanor prisoners.  This has been a long time coming, but it is great news.  (Read the news release: Download 05-13 jail space agreement.)

When Constantine was campaigning last year he promised a new focus on regional solutions; he delivered today! 

My colleagues and I were never thrilled with the idea that we might have to build a new facility to house our misdemeanor offenders, but we knew we had to plan for that possibility when King County insisted they couldn't house our prisoners after 2012.  Councilmembers Bruce Harrell, Nick Licata and I started a series of private discussions with City and County officials last summer.  These discussions intensified after last November's election, encouraging Constantine to take a different approach to jail services.  We urged him to view jail services as a regional matter and to engage more aggressively with municipal governments that would avoid multiple cities launching their own jail projects.  After he took office, Mayor McGinn joined these efforts that culminated today in the announcement that Seattle would stop planning work for a new city jail. 

Earlier this year, the County and City agreed to an extension of jail services through 2016, today's agreement extends that date to 2020.  Kudos also to the south county cities that worked closely with us to forge an agreement that will allow Seattle misdemeanor prisoners to be housed in the already-under-construction regional facility in Des Moines.  

I blogged about this issue last August. 

Council Study on Jail Capacity

Seattle should not build its own jail.  That's my conclusion after reviewing an extensive staff study on jail capacity issues.

Our policy staff reports that by 2018 Seattle and our north- and east-county partner cities will experience a capacity gap of over 300 beds for misdemeanants; by 2022, the capacity gap is projected to grow to nearly 500. 

Our study finds we cannot close the capacity gap simply through treatment programs for drug users. We could not do so even by halting all lower-level drug arrests. The reality is that we just don’t arrest that many individuals where the only offense is a misdemeanor or low-level drug felony, and those we do arrest on such charges do not account for many jail days. 

Determining the need for future jail services must be addressed at a regional - not local - level so the public safety requirements of the entire county are addressed. In addition, King County should remain the sole provider of jail services. Why? Because complex factors drive the demand for jail services and these considerations cross multiple jurisdictions. Good planning cannot be done in isolation. Economies of scale considerations are also an important factor to keep in mind.  For these reasons, I firmly believe that Seattle should not build a new jail.

Regional planning can be successful if the county extends the current jail services contract with Seattle and the suburban cities for a minimum of 10 years and then closely partners with all of the cities to put together a solution that will close the capacity gap.

Alternatives-to-jail and even pre-arrest diversion programs should be continued and expanded, as Seattle has effectively done in recent years. These alternatives have merit for many reasons, but play only a part in meeting the jail capacity challenge.

Here are copies of the documents released this afternoon.

Policy Staff Study:  Download Jail Capacity Study 9-8-09

Fact Sheet:  Download 20090806 fact sheet - jail capacity study - final

New Jail: Time for Leadership and Collaboration

The City Council today formally asked King County to extend for at least 10 years its jail services contract with cities, an extension that would allow Seattle to avoid building its own jail facility for misdemeanor prisoners. 

Here is a copy of the letter and other documentation:  Download 042409 Letter to King County

You can find more background on this issue here. 

Jail Location Update

City officials today narrowed potential jail locations inside Seattle from the original four locations to two, and then added a new third site for consideration.  You can discover all the details here. 

Of the original four in-city sites, Interbay and First Avenue South Bridge remain active.  The new in-city location being considered is a county-owned vacant lot next to the existing jail in downtown Seattle at 5th and James Street.  Three other potential sites were identified today by our partner north and east county cities in Shoreline, Bellevue, and unincorporated King County near Redmond. 

I strongly favor a regional jail solution and the announcement today that six sites will move forward for further evaluation is a strong step in that direction.  Adding on to the existing downtown jail is a very attractive option because it would allow use of existing facilities (e.g., jail kitchen, medical facility, laundry, etc.) and provide for continued centralization of jail and other criminal justice facilities. 

Read my earlier posts on the location of the jail.

City Jail At Interbay

There has been some blog and newspaper coverage by staff at The Stranger of comments I made at a meeting of the Georgetown Community Council last week.  Just to set the record straight, I have not taken a position on where the new city jail should be located. 

During the community meeting, which covered numerous topics, I was asked about the jail siting process.  I commented that the Interbay site, "in my own neighborhood," would score very high as would the site near the First Avenue South bridge (just a few blocks from where I was standing when I made these comments).  My comments were not an endorsement of any particular site but merely a reflection of the fact that, in my view, these two sites meet the evaluation criterion, which, of course, is why they are on the short list of potential locations.  I was not endorsing any specific site.

I favor a regional solution to the jail siting, with King County continuing to play a significant lead role.  Just yesterday my colleagues and I discussed this issue (and many others) with the Bellevue City Council.  Bellevue, and other north and northeast county cities, have joined with Seattle and formed a working group that will hopefully develop a solution that makes sense for the entire region.  This process will continue through the end of the year.  I will keep an open mind, evaluate all of the facts carefully, and then make a final decision with my colleagues. 

I've written about this issue before here and here. 

More Jail: Tour Results

I toured the King County Jail across the street from City Hall this afternoon with my staff.  This is the jail that will stop accepting city police misdemeanor arrestees at the end of 2012, forcing cities in the county to develop an alternative jail facility. 

The tour lasted about 90 minutes.  Several quick observations—

The jail is a depressing place.

The mentally ill don't belong in jail.  Instead, they deserve proper medical care and a safe place where they can regain control of their lives.  Our state's involuntary commitment laws are out-of-date and urgently need revision.

Most non-violent offenders don't belong in jail.  What a massive waste of resources; housing many non-violent offenders in jail is just stupid, to put it mildly.  Seattle has actually done a lot to reduce incarceration—lowering jail bookings by nearly 40% in recent years—through GPS monitoring, community court diversions, and other means.  But, the current system that jails non-violent offenders just doesn't make economic sense. 

Aggressive restitution, community reconciliation and restoration are wiser options for most non-violent offenders. 

The so-called "war on drugs" is a dismal failure because it scoops up users and those on the periphery instead of the traffickers and organizers of this illicit industry.  We need some critical thinking on how we use our limited law enforcement resources, just doing more of the same is clearly not the answer. 

One can't tour the jail and not notice the abundance of people of color in custody.  I'm not one to draw sweeping conclusions about this, but it causes pause.  What has happened in this country—this city—that minorities are arrested so disproportionately?  There aren't easy answers, I realize, and there is a record that reaches back hundreds of years, but I came away from the tour with a lot of questions.  By the way, in Seattle people of color are disproportionately more likely to be victims of crime, too.    It's a complex issue for sure.

Go To Jail!

Siting a new jail in Seattle isn't a task I would voluntarily sign up for, but that's exactly what I will be doing with my colleagues over the next nine months or so.  Here's a quick summary:

When Seattle police officers make arrests they take these arrestees to the King County Jail where we "rent" jail cells.  But King County is running out of room, so beginning January 1, 2013 the County jail will no longer accept bookings for misdemeanor-only crimes.  So, Seattle must find an alternative jail facility for misdemeanants and fast.  Read today's Seattle Times and Seattle PI stories on all this.  The city has posted information about the jail siting process, background, site selection factors, site lists, and other information you can read at a special website.

Update:  KUOW Radio covered this story earlier today.