Block The Bunker activists celebrated after Mayor Ed Murray backed down and put the $149 million North Precinct police building on hold. But they quickly turned their sights on their next foe: a $210 million youth jail planned for the Central District. Protesters railed against the youth jail repeatedly when they took over and shut down the Seattle City Council meeting Monday.
A Shady History
King County got its coveted youth jail funded via a deceptively worded 2012 ballot amendment that failed to mention the operative words “jail” or “incarceration.” Instead it opted for a euphemism: A “Children And Family Justice Center” that “services the justice needs of children and families.” That does sound better than youth jail. The ballot earned or perhaps bamboozled 55% of the vote.
Early this year, a group called Ending Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC) filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to halt construction, which was due to begin in 2017. Attorney Knoll Lowney, who is representing EPIC, not only argues that the ballot language was misleading, but also disputes the case that the County made painting the old facility as obsolete.
[T]he suit cites the county’s own 2011 analysis of the building, which described the building as “generally in good condition.” The analysis said repairs to the building would cost a total of $795,981—not millions of dollars, as the county has repeatedly claimed. Lowney alleged the county had “cooked the books.”
Moreover, the lawsuit argues youth incarceration disproportionately harms black youth—to a shocking degree in fact—and does not work as a diversionary tactic. Ansel Herz reports:
The lawsuit makes broader arguments against youth incarceration. “Incarcerating a youth for low-level crimes makes them more likely to reoffend than those who were not incarcerated,” the suit states. The suit points to the county’s acknowledgment that racial disparities have grown, even as the sheer size of its youth detention population has been drastically reduced. Eight percent of county youths are black, but they represent about half of those detained.
It does not appear EPIC succeeded in getting an injunction since most sources have indicated that the Master Land Use Permit the County is seeking from the City of Seattle is the last major obstacle the project needs to clear to break ground, barring another Block The Bunker stunning turnaround anyway.
Jail Or Justice Center?
The County, for its part, argues its new facility is foremost a 137,000-square foot courthouse with ten courtrooms, an increase of three while providing a more welcoming youth jail/courthouse with a daycare center and programming space. Furthermore, King County argues the 92,000-square foot detention center moves in the right direction by reducing the number of detention beds to 112 compared to the current facility’s 212 beds: “Design allows for flexibility to reduce detention space in the future. This facility will have 100 fewer detention beds than the current one has (212), almost cutting the number of beds in half.” King County even describes the detention center as “therapeutic” in its website. Note, 40 of the beds that were cut were not done on King County’s own accord but after pressure from EPIC activists forced its hand. King County’s promotional plea for a new youth jail is below.
