Re-upping this story from July 2017
This story is one of several presented as part of this week’s Juvenile Detention package.
Local politicians and activists agree: King County should eventually stop detaining youth. The Seattle City Council passed a resolution saying as much in 2015. King County executive Dow Constantine signed on to the vision in January.
The point of disagreement is over how quickly the criminal justice system can achieve Zero Youth Detention, a phrase popularized by local activists opposed to the planned construction of a new juvenile detention center. It’s a classic debate between radical and incremental change, and it’s the fundamental question behind the discourse over the new youth jail.
Proponents of the jail cite alarmingly violent crimes (think: rapes, murders, and armed robberies) to argue that eliminating youth detention won’t be possible anytime soon. During an election endorsement meeting in June, for instance, Constantine pulled out his phone and rattled off the facility’s daily population count: one rape, two murders, and 10 first-degree robbery charges. “The preponderance of these are stealing something from you with a weapon or worse,” he said.
