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.