City Council to Vote on New Legislation That Would Allow City to Contract With Controversial Jail

by Lauryn Bray

Next week, the Seattle City Council will vote on CB 120825, legislation that, if passed, would give the City the permission to contract with South Correctional Entity (SCORE Jail) to house misdemeanor offenders.

The Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee approved the bill Wednesday, July 31, with a recommendation that the full council pass the bill. Proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell, the legislation would establish a new pilot program granting the city use of up to 20 beds for misdemeanor offenders.

The initial anticipated cost of a contract, $600,000, would provide the city 20 beds at SCORE Jail for the rest of 2024. Subsequent contracts for 2025 and beyond rise to $2 million per year — or $100,000 per bed. As the City prepares for an impending $260 million budget shortfall, some Seattle residents expressed concern that Harrell's new proposed pilot program is an irresponsible use of the city's funds.

"Spending over $2 million annually to incarcerate people for low-level misdemeanors at SCORE [Jail] is fiscally irresponsible, especially with the $250 million budget deficit," said Kate Rubin, organizing director of Be:Seattle. "King County ended its contract with SCORE after just three months and it's embarrassing that Seattle is considering the same mistake."

In addition to questions about the financial feasibility of a contract with SCORE Jail, there were also concerns that the contract would exacerbate staffing problems at Seattle Police Department (SPD).

"It was reported by central staff that the contract would pay approximately $260,000 in overtime for SPD to move incarcerated individuals from one place to another," said Bryennah Quander, co-chair on the Seattle Human Rights Commission. "It seems like with the staffing issues SPD faces, officers should be available for something more meaningful, rather than being a taxi system. This is money that could be used to support alternatives to incarceration and necessary social services."

However, the bill found support among the city's business community still recovering from the pandemic.

"I represent over 2,500 members of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, 85% of whom are small businesses that have struggled to keep up with the additional costs that our city's public safety and behavioral health crisis have brought to their doors," said Sarah Clark, who is also a director on the Seattle Public Schools Board. "This is on top of the fact that due to low foot traffic for residents, many still have not recovered financially from the pandemic. While laws currently on the books are designed to address some of these pressing public safety challenges, the current situation with the King County Jail does not provide the necessary capacity."

Some downtown residents also came to provide public comment in support of the bill. "On my way here … I couldn't get out of the front door of my building on Third Avenue because it was blocked with people smoking fentanyl. I opened up and I said, 'Please move out of our doorway.' They're like, 'You move out of the doorway.' People on the Third and Pike corridor — they're starting to act like they own it, and they are threatening, and it is scary," said Rebecca Sayre.

Many attendees opposing the legislation pointed to King County's failed contract with SCORE Jail last year and the numerous deaths that have occurred at the facility.

"As King County's recent experiences with this very jail show, this plan to transport people outside the City of Seattle and incarcerate them will waste millions of taxpayer dollars at best and at worst, it will be a deadly mistake for the people who are incarcerated," said Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense.

Since March 2023, at least six people have died at SCORE Jail, including 43-year-old Angela Majoor, who passed away at SCORE Jail in May 2023 from dehydration, malnutrition, and low electrolyte levels. Months after this, King County terminated its contract with SCORE Jail.

This year, 21-year-old Makena Buckland died while in custody of SCORE Jail in March. Buckland turned herself into the jail following a warrant for her arrest issued by Bellevue Police Department. Most recently, 60-year-old Lori Ann Renfroe died at SCORE Jail on May 11. SCORE Jail has not issued a statement to the public regarding either death.

After public comment, councilmembers heard from Greg Doss, an analyst from council central staff, who gave a presentation on the legislation and provided some background information on some of the services provided at SCORE Jail such as a Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) Program, a Trueblood Pilot Program, 24/7 nursing care, a doctor on site 40 hours a week with after-hour on-call service, and two Western State Hospital psychologists.

SCORE Jail is regionally owned and operated by the cities of Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila. The 802-bed facility is a government entity — not a private jail — designed to hold people charged for low-level offenses like drunk driving, petty theft, trespassing, and public drug use or possession for no more than 48 hours following their arrest.

According to Doss, detainees would be transported from SCORE Jail to Seattle for their arraignment to receive in-person counsel from the Department of Public Defense (DPD) prior to and during their hearing before being transferred back to SCORE Jail for release or to await further hearings.

"It's the mayor's office's assumption that most folks in custody would be released by a judge with bail and/or pre-trial conditions at that first appearance," said Doss. Doss also said that the King County Executive Office has indicated that SPD will only take misdemeanor arrestees to SCORE Jail if they fit a specific set of criteria.

"SPD officers would need to determine that a person would create a significant public safety impact if they are not immediately incarcerated," Doss said. "The person would also be unlikely to be released by a personal recognizance screener, who has the power to release a detainee before they appear at their first hearing."

Councilmember Tammy Morales expressed her concerns with the legislation. "The thing that we hear over and over again whenever we're talking about people who are experiencing homelessness or people in the street is that, 'Well, we offered them something. Just because they didn't take it, there's not anything we can do about it.' And so my understanding is that this next step — offering the ability to book somebody into jail — is happening so that they can get treatment, and I'm hearing the same response. So I'm not really sure what this is accomplishing."

Council President Sara Nelson attempted to clarify the purpose of the legislation in her comment to council preceding the vote. "This is not about homelessness. This is about patching a hole in our law enforcement system that will enable our officers who have probable cause to arrest people committing gross misdemeanor crimes, and enable them to take them somewhere," said Nelson. "I really want to make that clear because statements like, 'Well, we shouldn't be spending money on jail. We should be spending money on housing the homeless.' That only reifies the anti-homeless notion that it's homeless people who are criminals, or that it's only homeless people, or largely homeless people, that are committing crimes for which we need a place to take perpetrators."

📸 Featured Image: Seattle City Hall in 2015. Photo is attributed to SounderBruce (under a Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 license).