King County Superior Court is making two changes in how it handles admission of juveniles into detention in an effort to make significant cuts in the number of kids put into custody. One change will have a judge on call during the evenings to decide whether some juveniles, who would currently be detained, can be sent home. The other change will reduce the number of children jailed on warrants for missing court dates by perhaps 250 per year. The change, suggested by public defender Katherine Hurley, is expected to help particularly with cutting the detentions of young people of color. Since the late 1990s, overall juvenile detentions have been cut by 70 percent but the proportion of detentions involving young people of color has risen.
In an announcement of the changes, Hurley said, “The Department of Public Defense looks forward to ongoing collaboration with our partners to further reduce and, one day, eliminate the detention of youth in our community.” Details about the changes are here. A recent Crosscut report on the county's efforts to reduce and potentially eliminate youth incarceration is here.
