KING COUNTY, Wash. — A heated debate about the youth detention center unfolded in King County Council chambers Tuesday evening before the council voted to keep the facility open.
Public testimony lasted for about two hours.
"The country has invested in a cycle of harm and traumatization that ensures you will continue to have an incarcerated population,” one speaker said.
Protesters have been calling for the Judge Patricia Clark Children and Family Justice Center to close since the facility opened in 2020. That same year, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced his plans for the facility.
"The Executive has said that he wants to close the juvenile jail," said Reagan Dunn, King County Council vice chair. "He said as early as 2025. He's now pushed that back to 2028."
Dunn was against that. He pointed to data that showed last year, juvenile felony filings were up 57% from 2022, and up 146% from 2021.
“Ninety-seven-percent of the people who are in juvenile jail are there for violent felonies,” Dunn said. "We have to have a facility in place for those kinds of folks. Nothing in this motion would preclude alternatives to incarceration for lower-level offenders."
The motion to keep the facility open was introduced by Dunn.
“This is a huge victory for all who care about community safety that violent juveniles with a continuing pattern of violent behavior are able to be detained if necessary at the juvenile jail,” Dunn said after the vote.
It's a move that has garnered attention, and some anger.
"The proposed statement of maintaining what is going on at the youth justice center is unjust. Putting children in cages is abuse,” said one speaker during public comment, before the vote.
An audit found the average length of youth stays has tripled since 2017, something the facility is not designed for currently. It's a problem that's part of a debate that keeps going.
"I am just going to encourage council one way or another, shut it down or do a full job," another speaker said. "Don't continue to go halfway."
In a prepared statement, Dunn said the council "has brought clarity to our path forward," which will allow them to focus on improving operations and further investing in alternatives to incarceration.