Seattle Wants New Jail Contract
Citing a downward trend in the county jail’s population, the Seattle City Council on Friday asked King County WA for a new 10-year agreement to hold its misdemeanor offenders. Report from Seattle P-I.
If King County agrees to the proposal, it would likely end or indefinitely postpone planning for a new municipal jail, initially slated for construction by 2013. In a letter sent Friday to King County Executive Ron Sims and King County Council Chairman Dow Constantine, Seattle officials cited public “confusion” about the need for jail space. “One way to resolve it would be for you to offer the cities a new long-term agreement. Another would be for you to acknowledge that you cannot do so, notwithstanding any recent short-term trends. We would much prefer the former, but the latter would be an improvement over the status quo,” the letter said …
King County has warned it would no longer have room for the city’s misdemeanors due to projected increases in the felony population. After realizing that the jail would still have space after that deadline, the King County Council passed an ordinance last year declaring its mission to continue as a regional provider of jail services and directing the County Executive to extend jail contracts for one to years for misdemeanors, which include offenses such as DUI, domestic violence, or theft. The City Council’s letter said that a contract shorter than 10 years would not be enough to halt plans for a new jail …
The jail’s population has been shrinking and falling short of earlier projections. Bookings for drug offenses from Seattle police alone dropped 34 percent between 1998 and 2008, according to figures from the council’s Jail Capacity Advisory Study Group. Some have argued that the dip in the number of inmates could be maintained through increased use of alternative programs aimed at preventing drug offenders from committing new crimes.
County-City Issues, Prison and Jail Construction, WA King County, Washington
A shrinking number of inmates in the King County WA Jail is bucking prior forecasts and raising new questions about whether Seattle and its suburbs will need to build their own jail in 2013. 
Several cities in South King County WA announced Thursday an agreement to build a new jail to hold people accused of or serving sentences for misdemeanor crimes, and they have already selected a vacant 14-acre lot in Des Moines as the new jail’s home.