By Robert Schmad
Daily Caller News Foundation
The King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DJAD) are operating their jails under COVID-19 protocols to reduce the number of inmates booked in their facilities, according to a spokesperson for the department.
King County is experiencing a severe manpower shortage in its jails, a DJAD spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Jails in the county are only booking suspects arrested for allegedly committing felonies or serious misdemeanors, while other suspects of criminal activity are not jailed, Jason Rantz, a local radio host, first reported.
“King County jails still have the booking restrictions initially put in place early in the COVID-19 pandemic to lower the average daily population in our facilities,” the spokesperson said. “These restrictions are still necessary to help safely manage operations with current staffing resources.”
The practice of only jailing the most dangerous suspects was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce transmission of the virus.
A DJAD spokesperson confirmed the the DCNF that the current protocols are not in place due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the county, but rather to account for staffing shortages.
While not all misdemeanor suspects who otherwise would be sent to jail are currently being booked in King County, those charged with assault, firearm-related offenses, stalking, violating restraining orders, stalking, drunk driving or communicating with a minor are booked, according to the DJAD spokesperson.
Though these conditions exclude many crimes, arresting officers “can request public safety exemptions to book someone whose charges may not otherwise qualify under the current restrictions,” the spokesperson said. Other people who are arrested but not booked are given a notice to appear in court, though it’s not clear how that notice is enforced.
With staffing vacancies persisting, it is unknown how long jails in the Seattle area will be operating under pandemic-era booking policies.
“Despite robust recruitment efforts, we continue to have more than 100 vacancies out of 500 budgeted corrections officer positions,” the spokesperson said.
DJAD hired 77 new correctional officers in 2023, which a spokesperson for the agency called “unprecedented.” Many of these new officers aren’t sticking around, however, according to the union that represents them.
“So, we’ve got a huge retention problem that’s happening,” King County Corrections Guild President Dennis Folk told a local radio station. “People are coming in, they’re realizing the conditions in the jail, they don’t want to work for King County. We’re in active bargaining on alternative shifts right now” he continued.
Folk also claimed that Black Lives Matter activism and the desire to defund the police held by King County Executive Dow Constantine are contributing to the staffing difficulties.
Constantine has repeatedly pledged to close jails in King County, according to media reports.
Black youth represent 8% of the youth population in King County. Today, they make up half of those in juvenile detention. #KCSOTC
— Dow Constantine (@kcexec) April 27, 2015
King County, which the Census Bureau estimates had a population of 2.2 million as of July 2023, had an average daily population of just over 1,600 in its jails in 2024, per to county data.
Crime spiked in Seattle during COVID-19 and amid the accompanying jails protocols. Homicide, for instance, increased by 47% during the first year of the pandemic, according to The Seattle Times.
The King County executive’s office and the King County Corrections Guild did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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