Drafter
Clerk 11/04/2004
Title
AN ORDINANCE creating a department of community justice and dissolving the community corrections division; adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 2.16 and repealing Ordinance 14561, Section 9, and K.C.C. 2.16.122.
Body
PREAMBLE:
With the approval of the Adult Justice Operational Master Plan, Ordinance 14374, the county has established policies for the use of secure detention capacity that emphasize system and process efficiencies that reduce the utilization of jail and reduce overall criminal justice expenditures. In addition, the policies encourage alternatives to the use the secure detention for adult offenders in order to make best use of limited detention resources and preserve public safety. The council also established as a county policy the requirement for the use of integrated and coordinated treatment of offenders whose criminal activity is related to substance abuse or mental illness in order to avoid future system costs, reduce jail utilization for these groups, and reduce future criminality. This emphasis, along with other system changes, has significantly contributed to the slowing of the growth of the county's criminal justice budgets. In order to ensure the appropriate implementation of the county's criminal justice policy, the department of community justice is created.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Ordinance 14561, Section 9, and K.C.C. 2.16.122 are each hereby repealed.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 2. There is hereby added to K.C.C. chapter 2.16 a new section to read as follows:
A. The department of community justice is responsible to manage and be fiscally accountable for programs that provide alternatives to confinement, as well as services directed toward reduction of the use of correctional facilities in the county. These services could include education programs, work training and job development, secure residential drug treatment, transitional and permanent housin...

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