Staff report
King County Council vice chair Rod Dembowski introduced legislation on Nov. 2 that would ban solitary confinement for minors in detention.
According to a county press release, the proposal would also require the county to provide incarcerated youth with adequate educational resources and calls for the use of detention practices suited for youth and their brain development, regardless of where the young person is detained.
“We are working hard to improve our juvenile justice system in King County. We know from scientific research that solitary confinement can permanently harm young people,” Dembowski said in the release. “I had previously been led to believe that King County did not engage in this practice and I am disheartened and frustrated that King County has for years treated juvenile offenders with adult jail rules and practices at the Regional Justice Center in Kent. In addition, it is apparent to me that educational programs required by law are woefully inadequate at the RJC.”
Dembowski’s legislation comes a week and a half after Columbia Legal Services filed a class action lawsuit against the county for engaging in such practices.
HARMFUL TO JUVENILES
Most youth detained by the county are held at the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle. Some young people who have been charged as adults are housed at the RJC or, occasionally, at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle. Those youth are separated from the adult population at these facilities, the release states, but solitary confinement has also been used to punish young offenders.
According to the release, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has noted that even short periods of isolation often have serious long-term mental health impacts on juveniles and research has shown that solitary confinement does not reduce behavioral incidents and may increase aggressive or violent behavior by youth.
Janis Avery, CEO of Treehouse — a nonprofit serving youth in foster care — said in the release that it is “our moral imperative to facilitate child and youth development that allows each young person to be productive and effectively engaged in our community.”
“When young people commit crimes that lead to incarceration and prosecution, it is critically important that we engage in rehabilitation rather than punishment,” she said. “Youth and young adults are capable of change and deserve intervention to lead a contributing and satisfying life.”
In the release, Terry Pottmeyer, president and CEO of the youth services nonprofit Friends of Youth, added, “Placing youth in solitary confinement must stop. It is inconsistent with our community’s belief that rehabilitation, not punishment, is the primary goal of our juvenile justice system. We wholeheartedly support council member Dembowski’s effort to end the solitary confinement of children in King County.”
The legislation proposed by Dembowski seeks to implement reforms while ensuring the safety of King County staff working in the detention facilities.
According to the release, the legislation would ban the use of solitary confinement for youth in all county detention facilities. It also calls for the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention to take into consideration the developmental needs of young people in detention and take steps to ensure they have access to education and therapeutic programs that will set them up for success when they leave the detention facility.
“Justice-involved youth will come out of the system and return to our society. I believe that we should do what we can to support them returning as productive members of our community,” Dembowski said in the release. “Adult-jailing practices and inadequate educational opportunities hinder, rather than help achieve that goal for youth. It’s past time to end them.”
TO BETTER SERVE YOUTH
In addition to Dembowski’s legislation, county Executive Dow Constantine signed an executive order the same day to move youth younger than 18 who are charged as adults from the RJC to the Youth Services Center in Seattle, which is better able to offer age-appropriate programs and services.
According to the county website, youth now at the RJC will be transferred to the YSC as logistics allow. Five youth have been transferred as of Oct. 26. Fifteen youth are still at the RJC. By March 1, 2018, no youth will be housed at the RJC, except under emergency situations.
To better serve youth, the website states that the YSC includes a King County library branch as well as full-service school — which includes summer courses. Youth are typically in class for six hours per day. There is also programming with volunteers that includes creative writing, improv and gardening and a mental health and adolescent clinic provided by physicians from Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington. They YSC also provides developmentally appropriate discipline based on adolescent brain science, according to the website.
While the county’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention is still investigating the allegations in the lawsuit, the website states that the suit has highlighted what they have known:
“There is a difference in services provided to juveniles housed at the Maleng Regional Justice Center relative to the Youth Services Center and we have the opportunity to offer juveniles currently housed at the Maleng Regional Justice Center more services at the Youth Services Center.”
“King County’s leaders are united in pushing forward with the best ideas in juvenile justice reform. By moving youth charged as adults to the Youth Services Center, we are able to offer age-appropriate programs and services to help them get back on track,” Constantine said on the website. “This is just one reform of many, including creating more alternatives to detention and investing in the resolution of family challenges. As our work continues, we will do everything we can to help young people overcome the struggles of adolescence and the burdens of history.”
The website states that it has been a long-term goal of the county’s to house juveniles at the new Children and Families Justice Center, once it is operational by 2020. In the meantime, the Juvenile Justice Equity Steering Committee has been looking at options, costs and implications of accelerating implementation of this goal.
The county estimates that the YSC needs about $75,000 of capital investment to open two additional units, which can be done with existing funds set aside for maintenance projects. Staffing and operations will require about $1 million in additional funds at the YSC in 2018, according to the website, depending on how quickly staff can be hired and the cost of providing additional programming. These costs would be covered by existing reserves in the county’s general fund.
