After King County determined late yesterday to close both the county jail in Seattle as well as shutter all juvenile detention centres, Dennis Folk, President of the King County Corrections Guild, said that he was unaware of the plan.
In an interview with The Post Millennial, Folk said that the announcement that King County Executive Dow Constantine was closing downtown jail facilities "came like a bolt from the blue."
"This just got dropped in our laps this afternoon," Folk said. "I received notification that Dow (Constantine) was doing this 10 minutes before the email went out." Folk said there were no discussions with him or the guild.
If the closure goes through, Folk noted, the only solution would be to transfer the Seattle inmates to the King County Maleng Regional Justice Center (MRJC) located south of Seattle in Kent.
Folk said that the inmates currently in Kent are there because they are at high risk for COVID. "They are over 50, have underlying health problems like heart conditions, breathing problems etc."
"This would mean that the 6-800 [numerical designation for Seattle] inmates would have to double bunk in Kent Facility." Additionally, bringing inmates from another facility would place the Kent inmates at higher risk for contracting the virus from outside sources.
Folk had said in March that the ability of King County correctional facilities to practice and enforce social distancing was difficult.
"Working in a jail, we work in direct contact. We don’t have the ability to do the social distancing. With the inmates and our coworkers, we have to work in a relatively close environment," he said.
Speaking of the closures, Folk said "I am also concerned about the safety of King County residents and what this would mean for them. We have already released inmates that are in Seattle and elsewhere reoffending and being re-arrested."
King County has not provided a timeline for closing the jails or specific plans for programs to replace incarceration. The plan for jail and juvenile detention centre closures comes after Seattle's city council voted to contract the police budget by 50 percent.
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