This packet includes the following documents: • List of organizations that have endorsed the People’s Moratorium • Letter to Dow Constantine from OneAmerica endorsing the People’s Moratorium, dated 6/2/2018 • Letter to Dow Constantine from Columbia Legal Services and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, dated 7/13/2018 • Letter to Dow Constantine from Legal Voice endorsing the People’s Moratorium, dated 7/5/2018 • Letter to Dow Constantine from King County Department of Public Defense, dated 7/16/18 • Email from King County Budget Director, Dwight Dively, dated 9/27/2017 • Email from King County Budget Director, Dwight Dively, dated 12/26/2017 • Email from King County Legislative Analyst, Pat Hamacher, dated 10/16/2017 List of Endorsing Organizations of the People’s Moratorium on Construction of the King County Youth Jail University Beyond Bars Prisoners Advisory Committee 350 Seattle Anakbayan Seattle Anti-Capitalist Student Organizers at UW API Chaya Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group Asians4BlackLives Barnard Center for Research on Women Black & Pink - Seattle/Tacoma Black Power Epicenter Cooperative BlackOutWA Block the Bunker Camp Ten Trees Campus Animal Rights Educators (CARE) Casa Latina Civil Survival Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites Columbia Legal Services Community Alliance for Global Justice Concerned Lifers Organization Councilmember Jesse Johnson Creative Justice El Centro De La Raza Candidate Daron Morris End the Prison Industrial Complex Entre Hermanos Environmental outreach and education Equity in Education Coalition of Washington Estelita’s Library European Dissent Seattle F.I.G.H.T. (Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together) FEEST (Food Empowerment Education and Sustainability Team) Fuerza Colectiva PNW GABRIELA Seattle Gay City: Seattle's LGBTQ Center Gender Justice Center Gender Justice League Got Green Highline Education Association Huskies for Opportunities in Prison Education IfNotNow Seattle Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project Indivisible Eastside Ingersoll Gender Center International League of People’s Struggle Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle Jews Undoing Institutionalized Racism Kadima Reconstructionist Community Kids4Peace Seattle King County Department of Public Defense Legal Voice Liberation United Church of Christ MAPS-AMEN (American Muslim Empowerment Network) MEChA de Seattle University MEChA de UW Muslim Student Association SU National Center for Restorative Justice Neighborhood Action Coalition Noor - Seattle’s LQBTQI Muslim Collective NWDC Resistance NWIRP (Northwest Immigrant Rights Project) OneAmerica P.E.A.C.E. at UC Davis Palestine Solidarity Committee - Seattle Parisol (Pacific Rim Solidarity Network) Public Defender Association Puentes Mental Health Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Seattle Racial Justice Team, University Unitarian Church RBAC Corner Greeters Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project Reclaiming Health Red Noses Resource Generation Seattle Restaurant Opportunities Center Seattle (ROC-Seattle) Rising Tide Seattle Rocket CrossFit Seattle CISPES Seattle DSA Seattle Peoples Party Seattle Raging Grannies Seattle Whole-Hearted Activism Meet up SEIU6 - Property Services NW Social Justice Fund NW Solidarity Legal Somos Seattle Sprout Up Stop Veolia Seattle Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington (SYLAW) Students of the UW Q Center Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights at the University of Washington (SUPER UW) SURGE Sustainable Student Action Sylvia Rivera Law Project Tadaima TeamChild Tech Workers Coalition Seattle The People's Institute Northwest The Village of Hope Transgender Educators Network Transit Riders Union Triangle Club UAW 4121 United Students Against Sweatshops Local 99 UTOPIA - United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance UW Labor Studies Student Association UW Law Center for Human Rights and Justice (CHRJ) UW Law Non-Complicit Student Association (NCSA) UW Native American Law Students Association WA-BLOC Washington Defender Association Washington Dream Coalition Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine WFSE 1488 WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS White Students Against Racism at Seattle University Women of Color Speak Out Womxn's March Seattle / Seattle Womxn Marching Forward Youth Undoing Institutional Racism June 2, 2018 Dear Executive Constantine, I am writing to you in my role as the Executive Director of OneAmerica, the largest immigrant and refugee advocacy organization in King County and Washington State. OneAmerica works on immigrant rights, education, economic and environmental justice, voting rights, and immigrant integration. I write to join our voice to others who have expressed concerns about the continued construction of a new youth jail and courts on 12th and Alder in Seattle. We understand the desire to improve current conditions at the existing facilities. However, we are concerned about the negative impacts of the new youth jail on communities of color and immigrant and refugee communities in King County. Because of this, we support the People's Moratorium, and ask that you place an immediate moratorium on construction of the jail. There must be time for a meaningful dialogue and negotiation among the County and community members to consider community-driven options; a moratorium is necessary to allow for this dialogue. OneAmerica applauded your pronouncement in 2017 that you would be moving the County towards zero detention of youth. The County has made great leaps in terms of decreasing the number of youth jailed each night, and is starting to address racial disparities in the detention system. However, the County's insistence on continuing with construction of a facility whose design is reminiscent of an adult correctional facility contradicts this progress. Pushing forward on construction of a facility that will be obsolete in terms of best practice is the wrong path. We know that contact with law enforcement and the penal system marks members of our communities for immigration enforcement. By pausing construction and moving away from a model that is bound up with arrest and detention, the County will also affirm it will keep children in our neighborhoods out of ICE's hands. Our parent group in South King County, an area that sends a disproportionate number of youth to the current detention center, fights every day to raise the quality of their children's education and feels strongly that community based solutions need to be prioritized over detention and jails. The evidence bears out that there is no more severe disruption to a child's education than arrest and incarceration, and as part of our fight for our youth, we need to move towards removing incarceration as an option. Our goal matches your stated goal – to live in a county that leads the country by achieving the goal of zero youth detention. Construction on a new detention facility designed to last decades moves us farther away from that goal. The County's own studies show that the current facility could be made habitable with an investment of a few hundred thousand dollars. Let us make the current facility habitable, to honor the dignity of those youth currently detained there. The best way to honor the dignity of our county's youth is to stop the construction of a new facility, even as we work towards obviating the need for the existing one. In the six years since the vote on the now imperiled tax levy to fund the jail, much has changed. There is a growing consensus backed by research that incarceration for youth does not work. It does not keep our communities safe, and it wreaks havoc in the lives of the youth and families, mostly families of color, whom it touches. Please listen to the growing consensus that building a youth jail takes us in the wrong direction. Your leadership is critical to ensuring that we take a new path for our youth, our families and our communities. Sincerely, Rich Stolz Executive Director OneAmerica Sent by Email and First Class Mail July 13, 2018 Dow Constantine King County Executive 401 5th Avenue, Suite 800 Seattle, WA 98104 kcexec@kingcounty.gov The Honorable Laura Inveen Presiding Judge King County Superior Court 516 3rd Avenue, Room C-203 Seattle, WA 98104 c/o greg.howard@kingcounty.gov Metropolitan King County Council 516 3rd Avenue Room 1200 Seattle, WA 98104 council@kingcounty.gov Dear Executive Constantine, Judge Inveen, and Councilmembers: Columbia Legal Services and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project endorse the People’s Moratorium on continued construction of the King County Youth Jail. Continuing to build a new youth jail moves us all away from realizing King County’s commitment to Zero Youth Detention. The time is right to halt construction and truly dig into how King County can reach that vital goal. King County and the nation are at an historic crossroads in how we treat children caught up in the criminal justice, dependency and immigration detention systems. Majority society is only beginning to appreciate the tremendously negative impacts that systemic racism, over-policing and excessive incarceration have had and continue to have upon children of color and the communities in which they grow up; realities that communities of color have understood and confronted for many decades. Neurological and psychological sciences are proving that People’s Moratorium Endorsement July 13, 2018 Page 2 of 3 ______________________ incarceration and the many collateral harmful effects that come with it, damage children, sometimes irreversibly. Institutional racism afflicts all aspects of the criminal justice, youth dependency and detention systems. In King County important steps have been taken to reduce the numbers of youth held in detention. However, as the numbers of youth detained come down, the percentage of detained youth who are children of color has risen. In fact over 80% of youth detained as a result of an adult criminal charge in the past two years are children of color. 1 Over 70% of all youth detained at the Youth Services Center are children of color, though people of color represent less than 35% of people in the county as a whole.2 Halting construction of the new youth jail in order to chart a new path is one vital step that King County can take now that will help address these historic discriminatory patterns. A new youth jail only ensures that King County will continue to incarcerate children of color for at least the next 50 years. Unfortunately, the communities from which these youth and many of the victims of crime come have been absent from the planning for and design of the youth jail. It was only after plans had been finalized and construction begun that King County undertook a full study of the impacts its plans will have upon children or analyzed how the structure should be designed.3 That County funded study concedes that the current structural plans are not in the best interests of children and do not reflect current best practices in addressing the needs of children involved in the justice system and their families. Id. Children and the communities from which they come must be at the center of any further steps that King County intends to take regarding the youth jail. That has not happened to date. King County violates no laws by stopping construction. State law does not dictate how King County addresses the needs of justice involved youth. No state law requires children be held in a jail like setting and no state law requires King County to house children in a structure that its own consultants agree is designed like an “adult-correctional facilit[y] totaling a large bed count (112) [that] runs contrary to best practices.” 4 In fact, state law supports King County exploring 1 King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, 2017 Automatic Adult Jurisdiction Report at 11 (January 2018). https://kingcounty.gov/depts/facilities-management/major-projects-capital-planning/current-projects/childrenfamily-justice-center/juvenile-justice.aspx (reporting that in 2014 of the 2111 children held in youth detention 1536 of them where children of color or roughly 73%); https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/kingcountywashington/PST045216 (census data regarding racial demographics of King County); see also Eric Trupin and Mara Lucia Puertolas, Working to Reduce the Use of Secure Confinement (August 17, 2017) (“Trupin Report”) at 6-7 (indicating that in 2016, 50% of youth held in detention in King County were African American and 19% were Latino. Report does not indicate the percentage of Asian youth) 3 See Trupin Report. 4 Trupin Report at 7. 2 People’s Moratorium Endorsement July 13, 2018 Page 3 of 3 ______________________ all options to realize the goal that it has set for itself, Zero Youth Detention. The fact that at present there is significant doubt regarding the financial viability of the project due to the Division II decision is another important reason to stop now and reevaluate. Communities have only just begun to initiate and invest in effective alternatives to incarceration that provide appropriate accountability and limit the harms that our current system causes children on a daily basis. The time is ripe for a broader conversation about how King County’s institutions perpetuate discrimination and ensure negative outcomes and how those institutions must change to ensure a future where children are not locked behind bars. Our work advocating on behalf of people incarcerated in prisons, jails and detention facilities in Washington has demonstrated that incarceration inevitably results in abuse and denies the humanity of prisoners and jailers alike. Even though King County advocates for reducing youth incarceration, it nonetheless isolated children alone for weeks and months on end at the Regional Justice Center and King County Jail. Families are torn apart every day because of the actions of federal immigration officials. These abuses are likely to reoccur until King County brings in all affected communities and with their leadership develops and implements an effective plan to end youth detention for good. Many stakeholders, including Columbia Legal Services and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, stand ready to help the County in reaching that goal. Sincerely, Merf Ehman Executive Director Columbia Legal Services cc: Jorge L. Barón Executive Director Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Jenny A. Durkan, Mayor, City of Seattle – jenny.durkan@seattle.gov Seattle City Council - council@seattle.gov July 5, 2018 Via e-mail King County Executive Dow Constantine Dear Executive Constantine: The Legal Voice Board of Directors and Staff write to urge you and the King County Council to put a moratorium on continued construction of the new youth detention facility. Our mission of advancing the legal rights of women and LGBTQ people, with special attention to the needs of marginalized communities, leads us to this step. In 2012, King County voters approved a $210 million dollar levy to construct a “Children and Family Justice Center” in Seattle’s Central District. The Center will combine a new youth detention facility with a family courthouse. However, there has been significant community concern about the construction of a new youth jail, especially in communities of color whose youth are most affected by King County detention policy. Girls face specific challenges from the juvenile detention system, especially those girls who are most marginalized: • • • • Black girls are the fastest growing population in the system.1 In King County alone, Black youth make up 43 percent of the detention population but only 10 percent of the broader youth population.2 Forty percent of the girls in juvenile detention identify as LGBTQ.3 The majority of incarcerated girls suffer from trauma and other mental health disorders.4 Girls who are sent to juvenile detention typically have also experienced overwhelmingly high rates of sexual violence.5 Generally speaking, schools and law enforcement through the United States overincarcerate and over-punish girls of color. Incidents that would lead to counseling or other forms of intervention for white girls result in juvenile detention for girls of color. Moreover, criminalization as an intervention far too often misses what girls really need: many of the actions of girls who are ultimately arrested and put in detention are common reactions to unaddressed abuse and trauma.6 Likewise, claims that girls need to be detained to protect public safely ring hollow. the leading causes of arrest for girls are minor offenses such as misdemeanors and status offenses like running away, substance abuse, and truancy.7 This is not just of concern in other states – unfortunately, Washington “leads” the nation in incarcerating children for status crimes.8 Once in detention, girls do not often receive the help they need and may even be subjected to more physical and sexual abuse. Nine in ten girls reside in detention facilities with no licensed mental health counselors.9 Routine procedures, including the use of restraints and strip searches, often trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress.10 One in ten youth in state-operated detention facilities are sexually assaulted while detained; incarcerated girls are disproportionately subjected to this sexual violence.11 Eight out of ten times, the perpetrator of sexual violence is a staff member; staff members are more likely to assault children of color.12 After a court of appeals decision jeopardizing the funding for the Center, the People’s Moratorium has called for a halt on all construction activities until King County officials seek and receive more community input. Because the Center is likely to significantly affect girls in our community, Legal Voice endorses a moratorium on construction while greater community input is sought and provided. Sincerely, Lisa M. Stone Executive Director 1 Lisa A. Sterritt President, Board of Directors Kimberlé Crenshaw, et. al. “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected,” Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School and the African American Policy Forum (2015), 6. 2 King County Office of the Executive, “Juvenile Justice in King County,” data through March 31, 2017. https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/executive/performance-strategy-budget/performance-strategy%20/criminaljustice-strategy-policy/youth-justice.aspx 3 Malika Saada Saar, et. al. “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” produced by the Human Rights Projects for Girls, Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, and the Ms. Foundation for Women (2015), 7. 4 Cathy S. Wisdom and Michael G. Maxfield, "An Update on the ‘Cycle of Violence,'" in Research in Brief , U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice (2001). 5 “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” 7. 6 “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” 12. 7 Margaret Zahn et. al. “Girls Study Group: Understanding Girls’ Delinquency,” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2008), 3. 8 Charles Puzzanchera, “Juvenile Arrests” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2013), 10. 9 “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” 14. 10 “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” 14. 11 Melissa Sickmund and Charles Puzzanchera, ed., “Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report,” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2014), 218; “Custody and Control: Girls in the Juvenile Justice System,” Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (2006). 12 “Juvenile Offenders and Victims,” 218-219. Anita Khandelwal Interim Director of Public Defense 710 Second Avenue, Suite 200 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 296-7662 TTY Relay 711 Fax (206) 296-0587 July 16, 2018 The Honorable Dow Constantine King County Executive 401 5th Avenue, Room 800 Seattle, WA 98104 Dear Executive Constantine: The King County Department of Public Defense and the Washington Defender Association oppose the incarceration of young people in any facility--the current one or the new one. We share the community, city, and county’s commitment to zero youth detention. Juvenile jails and prisons traumatize young people and make communities less safe. When young people are incarcerated they are ripped away from their homes, schools, and communities. Without those supports, young people develop higher rates of mental illness and are more likely to be involved with the criminal legal system. Those harms disproportionately fall on young people of color, who make up more than 80 percent of the young people incarcerated in King County. Rather than being locked up, young people should be supported in their community. The decrepit nature of the current facility and the need to renovate it are beyond question, but the construction of a new jail makes incarcerating young people no less harmful. We should not, however, let the question of a building--new or old--distract us from focusing on a key driver of youth detention: prosecutorial practices. While we have seen the King County prosecutor’s office divert cases, we have also seen that office seek convictions when diversion would meet the needs of the young people and the community. We have also seen the prosecutor's office increase or add charges and request longer sentences when a young person exercises their right to go to trial. The recent outcry over the separation of immigrant children from their parents has raised public awareness of the trauma this practice creates. The young people we represent are no less traumatized when separated from their parents. We ask that local elected officials show these young people the same compassion they do towards young people traumatized by the Trump administration’s practices. RECYCLED PAPER The Honorable Dow Constantine July 16, 2018 Page 2 of 2 The King County Department of Public Defense and the Washington Defender Association fight every day to prevent the incarceration of young people. We are excited to partner with all who oppose the incarceration of young people and to work together towards a just and compassionate future. Sincerely, Anita Khandelwal Interim Director of Public Defense Christie Hedman Executive Director, Washington Defender Association 6!21l2018 Yesterday's Court Decision Regarding the CFJC Levy - knowlesd Yesterday's Court Decision Regarding the CFJC Levy Dively, Dwight Wed 9/27/2017 7:42 AM To:Swift, Jonathan Ellickson, Helene Bauck, Andrew Slakie, Elly P?um, Kapena Bender, Sid Rubardt, Aaron Davis, Tricia Kurihara, Gary Fong, Michael-EXEC Abrams, Whitney Smith, Rachel Smith, Lauren Jacobson, Michael Stubble?eld, Marcus Haumann Ford, Elizabeth Stone, Gail Noble-Desy, Patty