An agreement announced today by the City of Seattle and King County means that the King County Jail will be the primary provider of bed space for the City?s misdemeanor inmates for the next 20 years. That means there will not be a new jail at the Interbay location, one of six sites that was being considered in Seattle.
Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine said the agreement will prevent Seattle from having to build a new jail anytime soon. The city and county are also agreeing to cooperate on programs such as drug courts and diversion programs that can help reduce the jail population.
?What had been a source of conflict has become a partnership that benefits the County and the City. This agreement ends?with certainty?proposals to build a new jail in Interbay or any other Seattle neighborhood,? said Metropolitan King County Councilmember Larry Phillips.
Well why it was even considered an optimal place, mystifies me. What a relief.
Why not? The Navy operated a regional brig there from 1940 until the early to mid 1980’s when the new one opened at Sand Point. The one at Sand Point is now a community rec center.
The old brig was on what is now the Nationa Guard property. The buildings, (actually barracks) had steel bars on all the windows..they were only recently torn down about a year and a half ago.