A shrinking number of inmates in the King County Jail is bucking prior forecasts and raising new questions about whether Seattle and its suburbs will need to build their own jail by 2013 according to an article at SeattlePI.com today. As we have reported, a site in Interbay is one of six locations being considered for the jail.
Seattle and its neighbors to the north and east have been studying where to build a 640-bed, $110 million jail based on King County’s warnings last year that it would no longer have room for misdemeanor offenders in three years.
But instead of growing, the county jail’s daily population is decreasing, by almost 6 percent during the last eight months, according to jail staff. The average daily population also declined 4 percent between 2007 and 2008, according to figures from a King County councilmember.
Both jail staff and a city-appointed panel are studying the trend, examining whether it is likely to continue.
The Magnolia Community Council (MCC) has taken a strong stand against the Interbay jail site, saying there is no way a jail in that location makes sense. The proposed site (marked by the X) is located right across from the Whole Foods complex on 15th Ave.
