News & Resources
Shut Down King County Jails Press Conference
February 27, 2023: King County Jail is one of the deadliest jails in the US. Following the murder of Mr. Michael Rowland at the hands of those employed by King County at the King County Jail with the same chokehold that was used to kill George Floyd, over 50 community groups and organizations in the Seattle area have come together to demand the King County Jail be shut down.
The press conference marked the beginning of the campaign to Shut Down King County Jails, to compel city and county officials to invest in our communities' well-being and end practices of punishment and incarceration and featured speakers most impacted and informed on the violence of incarceration including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, Youth, Elders, LGBTQ, Homelessness Advocates, and Lawyers.
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![A worn photo features a bright eyed contemplative softly smiling Black man, Rowland in a light collared button-up dress shirt with a navy suit jacket and watch and two smiling Black baby girls in white and red dresses.]()
A Seattle man began the night in crisis. Then, a sudden death in restrain
The King County Jail’s initial account of Michael Rowland’s death had scant information: Officials said a 63-year-old man was found unresponsive in his cell minutes after booking and died at a hospital…
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![A Black woman in a plaid short sleeve blue button up stands in front of bright green foliage with a serious face, looking out, hands folded in front of her. Text below says "Shana Canontoni... is a psyciatric nurse practitioner... at KCCF..]()
Seattle’s jail has an ‘astronomical’ suicide rate. Little is changing
SEATTLE TIMES | 12.19.2022
On Aug. 2, 59-year-old Allen Duane McNutt became the fifth person incarcerated in the downtown Seattle jail to die by suicide in the past year.
Suicides are the leading cause of deaths in jail here and nationwide, but the number of suicides at the Seattle jail — one of two adult jails run by King County — is extreme, experts say.
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![Against a red and grey corrugated metal building on sunny day KC exec Dow Constantine, middle aged white man in collared shirt/black pea coat smiles next to an older middle aged (maybe Native) BIPOC woman in red and black wool cloak, also smiling.]()
Constantine pledges to close King County adult, youth jails
AP NEWS | 07.24.2020
SEATTLE (AP) — In a taped State of the County address King County Executive Dow Constantine gave a few more details on his proposals to close the King County Correctional Center in Seattle and to use the newly completed youth jail for other purposes.
Constantine said his budget later this year will propose a “phased closing” of the adult jail once the coronavirus pandemic ends, and he wants to remove all youth from detention at the new Children and Family Justice Center by 2025, The Seattle Times reported…
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![Photo of jail enrty-- white building w rectangular sideways blacked out and barred black windows. A blue art piece to the left and writing on the wall: King County Correctional Facility. A man walks by un sidewalk with backpack.]()
In a Sign of Worsening Conditions, Understaffed King County Jail Has Lacked Water for a Week
PUBLICOLA | 10.06.2022 | Erica C. Barnett
The King County Jail in downtown Seattle has lacked potable water since Thursday, September 29, and people incarcerated at the jail have been relying on bottled water for the past week, PubliCola has confirmed.
According to a spokesman for the county’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD), the county “has had the tap water in the jail tested multiple times in multiple locations, and all tests have indicated that the water meets EPA standards for drinking water. However, since the water is still cloudy, we are providing bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes.” The jail has “ample supplies of bottled water,” the spokesman said.
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![Front of King County Jail in the winter as the trees in front have no leaves. Sunny day, blue sky, the sky bridge from the jail to the court leaves a black shadow on the street.]()
Person found unresponsive in King County Jail cell later dies at hospital
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW | 03.21.2022
A 25-year-old who was found unresponsive in a cell at the King County Jail in downtown Seattle on March 10 died five days later at Harborview Medical Center, according to the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention.
Maribel Kostelak died March 15 from asphyxia due to ligature hanging, and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Kostelak’s death a suicide.
Though Kostelak was identified by jail officials as a woman, court records show Kostelak identified as a transgender man.
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![A woman in her room, sitting on bed in front of two windows is leaning over, falling to the side and clutching a drawer full of things. Her hands are over her eyes in a gesture of distress, perhaps crying. A kitty bed and cat also on bed.]()
Before he died, a King County Inmate Pled for help -- he didn't get it.
CROSSCUT | 03.07.2019
Attorneys representing the longtime partner of Derek Hutchinson are demanding an inquest.
Derek Hutchinson first complained of not feeling well at 5:20 a.m., when the nurse on duty at the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent came to see him in his cell. Hutchinson was a heroin addict and, according to the handwritten notes cataloging the day, the nurse determined he was going through withdrawal and took no further action.
Hutchinson complained again at 8:15 a.m., approaching the jail’s staff station, where, according to the notes, he “demanded” to go to Harborview Medical Center. Rather than oblige, the officer on duty told Hutchinson he needed to fill out a “kite” — a written request for medical treatment.
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![An image of the rectangularly boxed jail with sideways rectangular blacked out and barred windows with soot or mold or dirt streaking down the sides. Antennas on top, against blue sky with a plane flying overhead.]()
King County failed to comply with new law as jail deaths spiked
SEATTLE TIMES | 05.17.2022
…Since Mathis’ death, five more people have died in custody at the King County Jail or after being transferred to the hospital — at least three suicides and one overdose. In the first four months this year, the King County Jail system has seen more people die in custody than all of last year.
The jail has logged 28 suicides, suicide attempts or attempts at self-harm so far this year. The unusual spike in jail deaths has family members, public defenders and advocates asking questions about conditions at the jail, which has seen severe understaffing, new COVID outbreaks and an uptick in its average daily population since the beginning of the year….
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![Jail from the ground against a blue sky-- light colored rectangular building with black soot, dirt, or mold oozing from the ledges towards the barred and blacked out windows. a sky bridge to the courthouse in center top. Green trees in front.]()
ACLU sues King County over Seattle jail conditions
SEATTLE TIMES | 02.24.2023 | Brownstone
Conditions at the downtown Seattle jail have deteriorated so much over the last year that King County is violating a legal agreement to protect the health and safety of people incarcerated there, civil liberties lawyers say.
The ACLU of Washington filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon in Pierce County Superior Court that argues King County, which runs the downtown Seattle jail, and its executive, Dow Constantine, have breached a longstanding settlement agreement that mandates adequate staffing and safeguards arrestees’ access to medical care and court hearings.
The lawsuit comes after a deadly year for the jail. In 2022, six people died in jail custody or after being transferred from jail to a hospital. Four of them died by suicide — a rate that is four to eight times the national pre-pandemic average for jails.
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![A prison guard tower against a drab grey sky. razor wire fence in the foreground. Two tall poles on a second layer of fence go up to the sky leaving the frame, perhaps lights.]()
One of the deadliest federal prison units is closing
NPR | 02.14.2023 | Thompson, Marshall Project
The federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the notorious Special Management Unit at Thomson penitentiary in Illinois, after frequent reports of violence and abuse.
An investigation last year by NPR and The Marshall Project found that Thomson had quickly become one of the deadliest federal prisons, with five suspected homicides and two suspected suicides since the unit opened in 2019. The report also uncovered conditions that stoked violence, where volatile prisoners were locked down together in small cells for nearly 24 hours a day, often despite repeated warning signs.
