Seattle-area leaders have set a 2028 deadline to close youth detention centers despite a rise in juvenile crime.
“We know that incarceration is harmful, and we know that incarceration is costly,” said Celia Jackson, director of criminal justice reform for the King County Executive Office. king 5 report. “There’s always a good time to do the right thing.”
A protester breaks a window at the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle, Washington, on July 25, 2020. Amid anti-police protests, King County Executive Dow Constantine vowed to phase out “intensive juvenile detention” by 2025. Now he has been postponed to 2028. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty)
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Seattle’s secure detention center was originally scheduled to close by 2025, but King County Executive Dow Constantine changed that plan in July 2020 amid anti-police protests in Seattle. promised. He said King County will “shift public funds away from a system that is rooted in oppression.”
The center opened just five months ago, a $242 million investment that Constantine had previously supported, the Seattle Times reported.
Now, Constantine’s office says the center will not close until at least 2028. Prosecutors worry that even that deadline is too ambitious for a “no lock, no sell” approach. FOX 13 Seattle report.
King County Juvenile Attorney Ben Santos noted that there are currently more than 40 teens in King County on charges including murder, robbery, assault and weapons offenses.
“I’m concerned that if we don’t act in the right way, they and the people who follow them into this facility will harm even more people,” Santos said.
Seattle police chased and arrested three teenagers on December 19, 2023, after they allegedly tried to use a gun to carjack several people. The teens were booked into the King County Juvenile Detention Center.
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Constantine, an advisory committee tasked with abolishing traditional youth detention, wants to advance “anti-racist and pro-equality policies” by expanding “community-based alternatives” to prison. There is.
Despite county efforts to reduce overall youth detention, the proportion of youth of color in custody is increasing, according to the commission’s recent report. In the first nine months of 2023, 13% of juveniles in custody were white youth, and 87% of juveniles in secure custody were youth of color, according to the report.
The committee’s recommendations include the creation of new “retreat and reception centers” that can provide short-term housing for young people who are unable to return home “for safety reasons.” The commission also recommends creating a network of “community care homes” where young people who are not released can stay until their trials proceed.
Washington state law requires King County to operate a youth detention center, and the advisory committee’s report raised some concerns about whether the proposed alternatives would be followed.
Indigenous musicians perform at a rally by demonstrators supporting defunding the police in Seattle, August 5, 2020. A large banner reads: “No new youth prisons.” (David Ryder/Getty Images)
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A sharp increase in violent juvenile crime in the Seattle area has sparked a debate over the future of jails.
King County saw a more than 500% increase in motor vehicle theft charges against juveniles last year, KUOW reports. Some law enforcement agencies are blaming the “Kia Boys” TikTok trend for the increase.
Just this week, four suspects ranging in age from 14 to 16 were charged in Renton, Washington, with allegedly stealing a car, running a red light and crashing it into a utility pole before taking off on foot. Police were called to the incident after two boys, ages 8 and 10, reported someone in a car threatened them with a gun.
“Youth crime is an epidemic. We see it almost every day,” Renton Police Chief John Schulte said, FOX 13 reported. “We’re really lucky that no one was injured in this situation, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Seattle police arrested two juvenile suspects after a woman was shot and killed in a Greyhound bus depot parking lot on February 20, 2024. The teens were taken to a secure detention center, which King County Executive Dow Constantine hopes to move on to by 2028.
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King County Councilmember Regan Dunn criticized this week, calling the proposal to house “violent felons” in unlocked facilities “ridiculous and a clear danger to our community.”
“We must strive to improve juvenile justice by holding younger offenders accountable for their actions while avoiding creating more victims of innocent people,” Dunn said in a statement. Ta.
