Please correct this story. There is no law that requires king county to build a jail. RCW 13.40.20 defines a "detention facility" to include: "County group homes, inpatient substance abuse programs, juvenile basic training camps, and electronic monitoring." We can (and must) get a lot more creative than building a new "less-jail-like" jail (whatever that means).

I suggest you take a few into your home and see how that works out.

Jail their parents instead.

This is the stupidest cause that refuses to go away.

Will someone please answer these questions:

IF they cave on this for political expediency (because there is no rational reason to do it) , How much money will we have wasted in permitting fees, consultant fees, architectural fees, and general bureaucracy?

Will the money be refunded to the property owners who have paid into this?

Will the property tax assessment for the cost of the new facility be discontinued? We voted for a building, not some nebulous program.

Have the bonds been sold for this project? If so, what is the payback time?

What will happen to the children who need to be incarcerated? (Hint: The answer "no children need to be incarcerated" is stupid, and is not an answer)

Where should we hold juvenile hearings and other procedural happenings if we have sufficient lack of political leadership to allow us to abandon this public works project?

Where were these "activists" when the bond issue was up for a vote?

Build the facility, and work to make sure that as few children end up being housed there as possible. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp?

If the taxes don't drive you out of Seattle perhaps our under aged rapists and murderers who we won't lock up will?

Long ago and in a different country when I was 15 I had the pleasure of spending a year in the custody of nuns at a convent that also housed the elderly, insane and incorrigible youth of the area. There were locks and bars on the windows and no-nonsense nuns in long black habits. But also structure, food, clean beds and an opportunity for education. Would I have rather remained a homeless kid on the street? Definitely not. There must be an option other than jail or the street but there aren't enough nuns anymore to put things right.

And one other thing: Have the construction contracts been let? What is the cancellation penalty?

So, let me get this straight. To those of you who are against a new "Youth Jail". You wouldn't mind if the Under 18 "Youth" was not locked up. But sent home to His/Her parent(s) by a Judge. After you were Robbed, Raped, Shot, Hit & Run'd, Loved One Murdered, House Burglarized, your Under 18 year old was Kidnapped and abused in some way, Had your Car Stolen, etc. I'd LOVE to see any of you on the news telling a judge to let the "Youth" go home. 'Because him/her being locked up does more harm than good'.

I Triple Dog Dare Ya!

Thank you for your attentive reporting on juvenile detention. For those detained after they are a mere year or two older, none of the reason and liberality identified in your article, is extended to them.

I'm a jail volunteer and if there is a single policy that needs urgent review it is the detaining of the poor and indigent because they cannot meet the economic standard of bail. The jail is full of the homeless, day laborers, the mentally ill, intellectually challenged, and others who live well below the poverty level, and for whom $500 bail may as well be $500,00. I've met guys who've been in jail just short of three years because they can't meet tragically small amounts. Obviously, this targets vulnerable populations, and they need our help.

Seattle loves a good NIMBY crusade, which is why the "Block the Bunker" campaign did so well and led directly to phase 2, "Block the Jail and Keep Those Incarcerated Kids In The Inadequate Old Facility Pending Some Brilliant Plan, Which We Will Announce At a Later Date, to Eliminate Youth Crime Completely and For All Time."

Imagine a weight-loss program that was like: "Throw away the pants that fit you now, break out the pants that fit you twenty years ago" -- and that's it. That's the whole plan. That's what this is.

Poverty, broken communities, racism, no decent place to live and overwhelmed parents are some of the causes of this dilemma.

Its an economic dictatorship that worships wealth and punishes the poor.