Drafter
Clerk 07/07/2008
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AN ORDINANCE relating to regional jail services; requesting reopening of the interlocal agreement between King County and the contract cities for jail services originally executed in 2002; and establishing criteria for the negotiation of new long term contract for jail services.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The King County department of adult and juvenile detention operates one of the largest detention systems in the Pacific Northwest. The department's annual budget for 2008 is $120 million; $147 million when the costs of jail health services are included.
2. The council adopted the current city jail services agreement in Ordinance 14573, covering the time period 2001 through 2012.
3. Cities have identified a need for more than one thousand four hundred jail beds for city inmates through 2026, and have developed a variety of options for building new misdemeanant detention capacity. The council acknowledges a long-term need for additional detention and community corrections capacity in the region over the next twenty years.
4. Since 2000, the county has worked to manage criminal justice system costs through the implementation of the Adult Justice Operational Master Plan (AJOMP) and the creation of the community corrections division, both of which have been supported by the Criminal Justice Initiative. These initiatives have resulted in reductions in county jail populations that are well below historic projections.
5. The council finds that the principal regional county responsibility of maintaining public safety is best served through the integration of criminal justice services as exemplified through the county's adult justice and other operational master planning policies. As a consequence, it is the intent of the council that the county should continue to be the primary regional provider of secure detention and community corrections programs.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Recognizing capacity requirements for felons and county misdemeanants, the King County executive is requested to immediately begin negotiations with cities for the extension of the jail services agreement, providing at least two years beyond its current December 31, 2012, termination. Furthermore, it is the intent of the council that the executive increase the average daily population limits contained in the existing agreement, to the extent possible.
SECTION 2. The executive shall prepare a proposal which would result in the rapid development of additional detention capacity at the Maleng Regional Justice Center ("RJC"). This proposal shall include the Maleng RJC Site Master Plan and a 2009 capital improvement project request. The 2009 capital project request shall combine the pre-design analysis recommended by the council auditor for major projects and a preliminary design. The proposal shall be submitted to the council by October 1, 2008, for council review and consideration in the 2009 budget process. Eleven copies of the proposal to the council shall be filed with the clerk of the council, who will retain the original and will forward copies to each councilmember and to the lead staff the committee of the whole, or its successor.
SECTION 3. It is the intent of the council that the executive also negotiate with both the state and the cities seeking their immediate participation in capital planning and construction of additional capacity for both secure detention and community corrections programs.
SECTION 4. The council requests that the executive negotiate a new long-term jail services agreement with the cities upon completion of the contract extension described above. These negotiations are encouraged to consider a new governance structure in the interest of building a strong and fair partnership for jail services between the county and cities, capital funding for additional detention capacity, allocation of
operating costs and county and city utilization of criminal justice efficiencies and best practices to benefit the system.