Following final report on efforts to close the youth jail, Dunn calls push for unsecure youth detention ‘preposterous’

March 27, 2024

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn issued the following statement Wednesday in response to the final strategic report on the “Zero Youth Detention” initiative to permanently close the County’s youth detention facility, the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center (CCFJC):

“The fact that the County is still considering placing violent felons in unlocked facilities is preposterous and a glaring danger to our communities. We must work to improve juvenile justice while still holding younger offenders accountable for their actions and without creating more victims out of innocent people.

“It’s time for leaders to reassess their misguided and unrealistic goal of eliminating juvenile detention for violent offenders. The time and funding put into closing the CCFJC would be much better invested in building up rehabilitative services that give juvenile offenders a new future and improving detention at our existing facility.”

The Zero Youth Detention initiative seeks to close the CCFJC even as the number of juvenile violent felonies—which include murder, assault, rape, shootings, and burglaries—skyrockets. In 2023, juvenile violent felony filings were up 57% from 2022 and a shocking 146% from 2021. As of last month, of the 46 crimes that landed juveniles in detention, 33 were violent in nature, including murder, rape, drive-by shootings, assault, and robbery, often involving a gun.

The report also revealed an internal debate amongst the Advisory Committee over whether detention should be secure. Advisory Committee members remain sharply divided on whether or not to have locks on the doors to the “community care homes” that would serve as alternatives to the current detention center and have been unable to agree on a recommendation regarding security.

The CCFJC opened in 2020 and cost $242 million. It was intended to be a more rehabilitative approach to juvenile justice, containing modern classrooms, a library, a gym and a medical clinic all within the same building as community services and juvenile courtrooms. Though the original goal was to close the detention facility by 2025, this report revised the anticipated closure date to 2028.