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A MOTION acknowledging receipt of an independent monitoring report on the confinement of juveniles in county detention facilities as required by the 2025 Annual Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 19861, Section 54, Proviso P3.
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WHEREAS, in October 2017, Columbia Legal Services brought a class action lawsuit against King County for an alleged policy and practice of holding juveniles in long-term solitary confinement, including without access to learning materials, at the Regional Justice Center, and
WHEREAS, in 2018, King County resolved the lawsuit through a negotiated settlement in which the county agreed to ban the solitary confinement of juveniles in all King County detention facilities except in very limited circumstances and to end the practice of housing juveniles in adult detention facilities. Further, the county agreed to provide self-monitoring reports to Columbia Legal Services until 2021 on a quarterly basis to ensure compliance with the terms, and
WHEREAS, in December 2017, King County enacted Ordinance 18637, Sections 2 through 4 of which were codified as K.C.C. chapter 2.65, banning the use of solitary confinement for juveniles, no matter what language is used to describe that confinement, at all King County detention locations. K.C.C. 2.65.020 provides only one exception to the ban: "when based on the juvenile's behavior, solitary confinement is necessary to prevent imminent and significant physical harm to the juvenile detained or to others and less restrictive alternatives were unsuccessful." The chapter prohibits the use of solitary confinement for disciplinary or punishment purposes. Further, K.C.C. 2.65.030 states the policy that solitary confinement be used "only rarely," and
WHEREAS, independent monitors have reviewed King County's compliance with K.C.C. chapter 2.65 each year from 2018 to 2024. The monitor's reports included information about how often the county uses solitary confinement for juveniles in detention, the circumstances of uses of solitary confinement, whether the youth in solitary confinement was appropriately assessed by medical and mental health professionals, and whether they received access to education and reading materials, and
WHEREAS, since 2019, the independent monitors have consistently identified problems with the department of adult and juvenile detention's data collection and documentation with respect to the use of solitary confinement. In each report, the monitors have noted that department of adult and juvenile detention ("DAJD") was making changes to address these problems. However, the lack of complete information has persisted, with the monitors noting in the April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2025, independent monitoring report that, "In all reports since 2019, the monitoring team has noted inconsistencies in descriptions of how a youth's behavior created a risk of imminent and significant harm requiring restrictive housing." Such information is necessary for the monitors to determine compliance with the county’s ban on juvenile solitary confinement, and
WHEREAS, from 2018 to 2024, DAJD has reported that solitary confinement has been used a total of 1,516 times for juveniles in detention. In 2019, solitary confinement was used 139 times and in 2024, it was used 536 times. The average per year has been 252 incidents of solitary confinement, and
WHEREAS, the July 2023 - March 2024 independent monitoring report states that, "the problem of missing data has worsened over time with regards to assessments to be conducted of youth in restrictive housing, making it difficult at best to draw meaningful conclusions regarding some factors relevant to monitoring review and reporting functions," and
WHEREAS, the April 2024 - March 2025 independent monitoring report states, "[w]hile earlier reports have noted concerns about data reliability, the monitoring team encountered issues more frequently during the current review period." The report further states that while the type of restrictive housing incident is nearly always documented, the additional detail describing the underlying incident is not and "[t]he detail is important in evaluating whether restrictive housing is necessary to prevent imminent and significant physical harm to youth or others, as required by K.C.C. chapter 2.65 and RCW 13.22," and
WHEREAS, K.C.C. 2.65.020 bans solitary confinement of juveniles "except when based on the juvenile's behavior, solitary confinement is necessary to prevent imminent and significant physical harm to the juvenile detained or to others and less restrictive alternatives were unsuccessful." The monitors' report admonishes DAJD's use of "imminent harm" as an independent justification category "since imminent harm actually should be a consideration for all circumstances leading to restrictive housing, as opposed to being used as a separate type of unacceptable behavior that could result in restrictive housing." Moreover, for Adult Age Outs in Restrictive Housing, there were solitary confinement incidents lasting 8 hours, 10 hours, 7 days, and "8+ days" all of which had no restrictive housing assessment completed rendering any review of the circumstances of the confinement impossible, and
WHEREAS, the independent monitors have made numerous recommendations to DAJD regarding how to improve data collection systems over the years of monitoring, including recommending that supervisors review documentation of uses of solitary confinement on a daily basis to ensure reporting has been made and made completely, making the recording system more user-friendly, and educating staff on the rationale behind required fields in the data-management system, and
WHEREAS, King County Council included a proviso in King County's 2025 Annual Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 19861, Section 54, Proviso P3, requiring the independent monitor to certify that DAJD appropriately documented at least 90 percent of the proviso reporting requirements related to the solitary confinement prohibitions and policies. In the independent monitoring report responding to the proviso, the independent monitors stated the 90-percent-documentation standard was not met. Rather, the reporting noted continued inconsistency in the detail supporting the uses of solitary confinement and that DAJD juvenile division documented mental health assessments in only 59 percent of incidents over four hours, medical assessments in 66 percent of incidents over four hours, and access to reading material in 59 percent of incidents, and
WHEREAS, DAJD confirmed the agency did not meet the 90 percent documentation threshold required by the proviso, and
WHEREAS, the 2025 Annual Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 19861, Section 54, Proviso P3, requires the executive to transmit a report on the confinement of juveniles in county detention facilities, accompanied by a motion that should acknowledge receipt of the applicable report, and
WHEREAS, the report was to be transmitted no later than June 30, 2025, and cover the period of April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025, and
WHEREAS, Ordinance 19861, Section 54, Proviso P3, provides that $100,000 shall not be expended or encumbered until the executive transmits the report and a motion acknowledging receipt of each report is passed, and
WHEREAS, upon passage of the motion, $100,000 shall be released for expenditure or encumbrance, and
WHEREAS, the council has acknowledged receipt of the this report transmitted by the executive;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
The receipt of the independent monitoring report on the confinement of juveniles in county detention facilities, entitled King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention Independent Monitoring Team Report, Attachment A to this motion, is hereby
acknowledged in accordance with 2025 Annual Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 19861, Section 54, Proviso P3.