Why Does Seattle Need a Municipal Jail?

King County has given notice to Seattle that Seattle will lose all its municipal jail beds in less than five years.

The City is not looking at building a municipal jail because its jail population is growing. Seattle’s municipal jail population has dropped by almost 40 percent in the last 10 years. Seattle is looking at building a municipal jail because the City is going to lose all of its municipal jail beds when its nonrenewable contract with King County ends in 2012.