Cities that own SCORE jail seem uninterested in accountability or improvement
SCORE Jail:
PubliCola has continued its crucial coverage of the terrible conditions at the local SCORE jail in Des Moines. 11 people held in the jail have now died over the past two years, which is a shockingly high number. The jail has been reported to have inadequate medical care, filthy conditions, and contemptuous staff.
The jail is owned and operated by six local cities–Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Renton, SeaTac, and Tukwila–and it has contracts with many more local cities, including Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Shoreline, Kenmore, Federal Way, and more. The jail is run by an executive director who reports to an administrative board with representatives from the six cities.
The most recent board meeting was this past Wednesday, when the executive director called PubliCola’s recent reporting “misinformation.” The board didn’t ask the executive director anything about the conditions and facts reported in the article nor showed any interest in accountability or improving conditions inside this deadly facility.
If you live in one of the six cities that operates the jail, here is a document with talking points and contact information.
Seattle News:
I sat down last week with Seattle City Attorney candidate and current public defender Nathan Rouse, and we had a long talk about his road in deciding to run and his vision for the Seattle City Attorney’s office.
Real Change ran an op-ed by David Stoesz this week, entitled “Facts and evidence are our greatest strength: A response to Katie Wilson.” He makes some compelling arguments, and he also provides a nugget of information I think is important to emphasize.
While discussing how in addition to housing, some folks are also in need of wrap-around services, Stoesz says that Plymouth Housing has calculated that one year of assisted living with the highest level of service costs the same as three days at Harborview or three months at the King County Jail. (King County Councilmember Sarah Perry said at a meeting this past Tuesday that a night at the King County Jail costs $250 per night.)
While there are plenty of other evidence-based reasons why housing first and providing services to folks is smart policy, in this time of looming governmental budget deficits, remembering the relative cost of these policies is also useful.
The City Attorney’s Office has slightly relaxed their blanket affidavits of prejudice against sitting Seattle Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi, who is now able to oversee some criminal cases. However, the Office still filed several affidavits of prejudice against her last week for DUI and domestic violence cases, and her primary assignment remains in infractions, as she does not yet have enough criminal cases for a full courtroom calendar.
New interim SPD Chief Shon Barnes presented to the city council’s public safety committee for the first time on Tuesday. I’ll be reporting more on that meeting soon.
Seattle awarded $22 million through its Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) in January. Projects funded include: “Africatown Community Land Trust (completing the Africatown Plaza development), Cham Refugees Community (completing a Cham community center), Rainier Beach Action Coalition (completion of the Food Innovation Center), the Somali Health Board (assisting construction of the Somali Community Cultural Innovation Hub), and Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network.”
WA State News:
The fiscal committee cut-off for bills this legislative session is TODAY, so soon I’ll be going through a bunch of interesting bills to see if they survived. I can already tell you that the Traffic Safety for All bill has unfortunately died.
Yesterday Governor Bob Ferguson proposed $4 billion in state budget cuts. These cuts, combined with those proposed by former Governor Jay Inslee before his departure, would add up to $7 billion of a budget gap Ferguson is now estimating will be $15 billion over the next four years.
Part of his plan involves state workers taking one unpaid day off per month. These furloughs would begin in July and save the state $300 million. He also wants to cut funding to food banks, which, given the combination of potential federal cuts to the SNAP food assistance program and the much higher demand on food banks since the pandemic began in 2020, seems potentially disastrous.
Ferguson says it’s still too soon to say whether he’ll support state tax increases, which seems strange, given that were his cuts to be adopted, they still only address half of the state’s four-year budget deficit. There is also no word on how he is considering dealing with any federal fund cuts. Again, Washington State received $27 billion from the federal government in fiscal year 2024.
In Praise:
I highly recommend reading author and organizer Kelly Hayes’s most recent piece, How to be a Fighter When You Feel Like a Punching Bag. It is long so you will need to put aside some time to read it (or there is also a listening option!), but I found it incredibly valuable and think it is worth your time.
Among other topics, it covers:
Agency, trauma, learned helplessness, and feeling stuck/frozen in the current onslaught
The impact of social media, the bubbles it often relegates us to and how that encourages despair, isolation, and misanthropy, and the necessity for trust in order to organize collective action
The necessity of building social skills and relationships to meet this moment, as well as the importance of community
A key quote in the piece from Aaron Goggans: “Every time Musk or Trump weaponizes cruelty to shock a group into compliance we have to show, not with our outrage but with our care, that another response is possible.”
The strategy of taking small steps of agency and thinking about what activities/routines you can add to your life that are aligned with your values and keep you more informed and connected.
I hope you all find this piece to be as inspiring and helpful as I did.
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