This story is one of several presented as part of this week’s Juvenile Detention package.
In 2012, King County voters approved a $210 million levy to replace the existing juvenile jail and courthouse in the Central District. The plan sparked one of the most energetic and influential protest movements in recent Seattle history.
Calling themselves Ending the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC), activists opposed to the new youth jail have shut down city council meetings, interrupted speeches, and blasted music outside the existing detention center. The group hasn’t stopped the construction of a new facility, but they’ve won concessions. In 2015, the county announced it would reduce the number of beds in the center from 154 to 114. In May, city council members voted to allow a challenge to the facility’s master-use permit. And perhaps most remarkably, both the Seattle City Council and King County executive Dow Constantine have endorsed a vision of eliminating juvenile incarceration all together. They call it Zero Youth Detention.
