King County youth jail closure deferred to 2028 amid rising youth crime rates

KING COUNTY, Wash. — King County Executive Dow Constantine says the youth jail will not close in 2025 as previously suggested, and the office will not follow through on the proposal until 2028 at the earliest, as youth crime surges in the region.

But Constantine still believes the closure will be the right thing to do, in an interview with KOMO News.

“Yes, It’s not something that can be done immediately, and not something can be done without putting a whole lot more pieces in place,” he said.

His office quietly announced the delay in a press release in late January before youth criminal activity soared, like the recent armed carjacking or purposeful pedestrian collisions with alleged teenage suspects.

RELATED: Seattle brothers, ages 12 and 13, charged with felonies for armed carjackings

Constantine frames the decision to delay the closure as a joint discussion, saying his committee recommended “taking more time to put in place some measures including community supports, direct supports for youth when they return home after having been arrested, things like mental health counseling or job training. One important component is a series of community-based homes where youth can stay while awaiting trial.”

As of today, there are a total of 112 beds in youth detention. Forty-two were occupied, and there were 70 available beds, according to the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention.

“Nobody's saying that there's not a need for detention. The question is, what does that detention look like? And is it appropriate for every case?” said Constantine. “Because if you take the worst cases and base your entire system on the worst case, it is going to continue to get the kind of bad outcomes we've been getting.”

He has pitched ‘respite homes’ for kids who commit lower-level crimes and need a transition point into counseling and services.

RELATED: Juvenile crime in Pierce & King counties seeing alarming trends in stolen cars, robberies

But King County Council member Reagan Dunn, a former federal prosecutor, said it would be a mistake.

“I think the policies that have been put in place to not hold juveniles accountable for serious crimes is beginning to show us consequences,” he said in an interview with KOMO News. “To close it down in favor of respite houses is ill-conceived. It won't work. And it won't keep the people who are dangerous in our community away from committing and recommitting.”

Constantine also stands by the idea that the closure would be a waste of public money. The Justice Center, in Seattle’s Central District, was built after years of complaints about the old facility and was started before community protests called for the closure of the jail. That’s when Constantine committed to a timeline that now won’t be met.

“It is a good example of the kind of approach we want to take with other parts of the juvenile population, where we take on their underlying challenges and work to get their lives straightened out.

RELATED: Teens arrested after North Bend bank robbery, multiple hit and runs in stolen Kia

Constantine was also asked about recent KOMO News reporting on the lack of prosecution of sexual assaults within the Juvenile Division and whether that was tied to the No Youth Jail movement.

"I met with the prosecutor, and she talked about their charging policies and how they charge very serious offenses. They also talked about the fact that historically, prosecutors have brought cases as felonies, knowing that they ultimately won't be able to get a felony conviction to be pled down to a misdemeanor and that they want to try to make sure that they're getting the right charge for the particular offense,” he said, continuing, “I think that we have a chance in this community to squarely look at the reality of racial disproportionality, the impact that detention has on kids in their futures and the fact that detention is not helping public safety.”