King County Jail

Summary

On April 6, 2021, the King County Auditor’s Office issued a report entitled “Adult Jails Need Risk-Based Approach to Improve Safety, Equity.” The findings in the Executive Summary are numerous, highlighting violence as a result of overcrowding with a disproportionate impact on Black and Indigenous people. Additionally the system does not have enough support services such as psychiatric housing.

Importance

On average, more than one fight or assault occurs per day at King County adult jails, with more than 30,000 people booked each year. There is no state oversight, reducing transparency and accountability. The County’s goal is to lead with race in its equity efforts, and DAJD’s mission is to run “safe, secure and humane detention facilities.” Additionally, due to workers’ compensation claims caused in part by employee injuries from violent incidents, DAJD has the second highest insurance rate of any county agency. South Seattle Emerald also reported it does not appear the DAJD understands why it needs to change its policies. Continued attention to the Auditor’s Report by the County Council and Executive is critical to ensure that Director Diaz and DAJD follow through on this commitment.

More Details

The findings in the Executive Summary of the Auditor’s report are:

  • The Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention’s risk management system could be more robust to increase jail safety. 

  • Fights and assaults occur daily in King County adult jails. However, the rates of fights and assaults dropped significantly when the King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle stopped housing two people per cell in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Even with a reduced overall population in 2020, the jail does not have enough psychiatric housing to provide consistent care to the increasing number of people with serious mental illness in custody. 

  • We also found significant racial disparities in housing and discipline that placed Black people in more restrictive housing, which has negative health impacts. 

The Auditor recommended that: 

... the County use a risk-based approach to continuously improve jail safety, avoid housing people in two-person cells, increase the number of suicide-resistant cells, enhance communication and training to better care for people with mental illness, and reduce racial inequities in housing and discipline.

 

Acronyms

DAJD - Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention