King County Juvenile Detention Facility controversary talks continue

SEATTLE — The King County Council had another debate about the ongoing controversy of either shutting down the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center or keeping it open as teen crime continues to rise throughout the area.

This time Councilmember Reagan Dunn proposed keeping the facility open for good and dropping the conversation of shutting it down.

“If you closed it, then immediately we would have a big number of juvenile violent criminals out on the streets,” Councilmember Dunn said.

Dunn also believes the alternate plans the county continues to explore aren’t feasible and that the facility has the services young offenders need to get better.

“And they might be in these respite houses, but they will be pushed out into the neighborhoods in and around King County. Not even in Seattle without monitoring, without corrections officers, without access to treatment facilities. And so, it is just not an attainable situation,” Councilmember Dunn said.

During Wednesday’s Law and Justice Committee meeting, the public was allowed to comment on Councilmember Dunn’s proposal.

While some supported his idea, the majority of the people who tuned in through Zoom were against it.

“The proposed motion before the council is a step in the wrong in the wrong direction,” Rhea Yo with Legal Counsel for Youth and Children said.

During the public comment period, many shared their thoughts on how the county could spend money elsewhere when addressing youth crime rather than focusing on incarceration.

“Incarceration causes harm and it solves nothing. It creates all of these barriers on education, housing and employment,” one woman said.

After public comment and discussion, the council decided to table the proposal for next month and potentially vote on the matter.

KIRO 7 reached out to King County Executive Dow Constantine for comment on the issue, but he was not able to provide one at this time.

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