Seattle's King County Jail Conditions are of the Deadliest in the Nation.
King County Executive Dow Constantine promised to shut down the “decrepit” KC Jail in 2020. We can’t keep waiting as more people die.
Why Shut Down the King County Jail?
The Jail Is Deadly.
It has an “astronomical” suicide rate of 8x the national average, and people die from other preventable deaths as well (such as by overdose, or after restraint by jail staff). The age of the jail causes all sorts of problems, from bed frames that can easily be used for suicide to brown water coming out of the sinks. It’s time to close this life-threatening facility. The longer we keep it open, the more people will die.
Jail Time Increases the Risk of Overdose Upon Release.
The jail is being used as a warehouse for people suffering from mental illness. The jail drives racial disparities, with BIPOC people disproportionately represented and Black and Indigenous people subjected to disproportionately harsh discipline and housing classifications. The Department of Adult & Juvenile Detention cannot staff the jail, despite extremely generous hiring incentives.
The jail is being used as a warehouse for people suffering from mental illness.
The jail drives racial disparities, with BIPOC people disproportionately represented and Black and Indigenous people subjected to disproportionately harsh discipline and housing classifications. The Department of Adult & Juvenile Detention cannot staff the jail, despite extremely generous hiring incentives.
Studies show that even a single day in jail harms people irrevocably—
—while investing in services helps them and reduces their likelihood of ending up in jail.
The County Council’s budget for the jail totals $498 million for the next two years.
Seattle City Council’s budget invests over $20 million yearly into the jail. This does not include the proposed two-year budgets of the many entities who must work on the cases that land people in jail, such as King County courts ($274 million), King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office ($207 million), King County Department of Public Defense ($169 million), King County Sheriff’s Office ($481 million), Seattle Police Department ($760 million), Seattle City Attorney’s Office ($80 million), Seattle Municipal Court ($83 million). Imagine if these resources were instead invested in supporting those jailed and their communities!