Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to limiting contracting for secure detention; and amending Ordinance 12432, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.16.120.
Body
PREAMBLE:
In 2000, the county council recognized that increases in criminal justice expenditures were outpacing the county's ability to pay for these increases, and the county council required the development of master plans for both the county's adult and juvenile criminal justice systems in order to reduce crime and the need for new detention facilities. As a result, King County's criminal justice system leaders engaged in an intensive effort to: explore alternative types of sanctions; identify justice system process improvements; improve the use of limited detention resources in order to promote public safety; and, preserve detention capacity for those offenders for whom jail is the only option. The county now makes use of a variety of local community services and programs for offenders to reduce recidivism and the county seeks to ensure that inmates have access to families and the community to ensure successful reentry after incarceration.
As a result of these efforts, the county has reduced its use of secure detention for adults and juveniles and maintains sufficient capacity to support current and projected secure detention needs.
Other jurisdictions, including the State of Washington and the federal Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have not been able to reduce secure detention caseloads and, as a result, contract with private, non-governmental entities, also known as private prisons, to house inmates in secure detention.
The existence of private prison service providers has become, in recent years, a focal point of controversy in the United States. Proponents stress that privately owned prisons operate with efficiencies not present in government-run systems and due to those efficiencies, have lower costs. However, national reviews contradict these assertions and ...

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