Drafter
Clerk 10/01/2003
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A MOTION approving the plan related to the implementation of an intake services unit as required in the 2003 Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 14517.
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WHEREAS, in 2002, the King County council recognized that, left unchanged, the county's budgets for law and justice would use up all of the county current expense ("CX") resources by 2008, leaving no resources for any other county CX program or for the administration of county government, and
WHEREAS, criminal justice expenditures account for almost three quarters of the county's current expense budget, and
WHEREAS, as a result revenue shortfalls, the county has had to make significant reductions in this area but has also taken steps to ensure that these reductions do not have an adverse impact on public safety through the development of a coordinated and comprehensive criminal justice policy framework, and
WHEREAS, the county council, working with the executive and the separately elected representatives of the county's criminal justice agencies, adopted a defined set of policies for criminal justice as part of the county's Adult Justice Operational Master Plan ("AJOMP"), and
WHEREAS, based on the policies adopted through the AJOMP, the 2003 budget included reductions for each of the county's criminal justice agencies, while at the same time each agency—through the implementation of the AJOMP—has been working to make the overall system more efficient and effective and less costly, and
WHEREAS, the adopted county criminal justice policy includes direction for the development of alternatives to the use of secure detention for adult offenders in order to make best use of limited detention resources and preserve public safety, and
WHEREAS, the council stated that the these alternatives or intermediate sanctions should be used in a graduated and measured manner, appropriate to the offense and cognizant of the cost effectiveness—measured through lower costs, or reducing the costs of future offending, and
WHEREAS, the county created a community corrections division that was developed through collaboration between all CJ agencies and established a system of alternatives to secure detention that changed from a "Administrative Placement Model" to a "Direct Sanction Model" where offenders are placed in alternatives only after a judicial decision, and
WHEREAS, the council added to the 2003 budget, moneys for the development of an "pilot intakes services unit" to support judicial decision-making and to speed the placement decision process, and
WHEREAS, the council required that before any moneys could be expended the executive and the superior court should provide a plan for this new service for the review and approval of the council;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A. The plan related to the implementation of the new intake services pilot program is approved;
B. The representatives of the intake services program workgroup, as part the county's continuing implementation of the Adult Justice Operational Master Plan, shall continue to oversee the implementation of the pilot program and shall develop the measures appropriate for assessing the success of the new unit after its implementation. The measures should include the impact of the unit on all criminal justice agencies, not just the impact on secure detention; and
C. The executive should transmit a request to transfer the identified level of
funding for the remainder of the 2003 budget year for the intake services program to the correct appropriations unit.