Why Seattle Needs a Municipal Jail

• King County has given notice to Seattle that Seattle will lose all its jail beds in less than five years.      
• Seattle is considering building a municipal jail because the City is going to lose all of its misdemeanor jail beds when its nonrenewable contract with King County ends in four-and-a-half years.
• Because of space constraints in existing County facilities in downtown Seattle and Kent, King County is requiring that Seattle and the other cities end their use of the County jail for city misdemeanants by December 31, 2012.
• This means that Seattle has less than four-and-a-half years to site and build a new municipal jail.  Seattle must begin this process now, as siting and building a jail normally takes at least six years. Seattle realizes this is a challenging schedule, which is why the City must identify and acquire a municipal jail site this year.

• King County will no longer provide jail beds to the cities.
  • A King County jail population study found that by 2015, King County will need all the space in its jail facilities to house its own felony jail population.
  • The cities have asked King County for a two-year extension to the current contract; King County has said no.
  • The cities have also asked King County to participate in a feasibility study to look at building a new jail that would house King County, Seattle and East King County inmates – King County said no.

• The City is not looking at building a municipal jail because its jail population is growing.
  • Seattle’s misdemeanor jail population has declined by almost 40 percent in the last 10 years.