It’s official: King County
will send inmates to Kitsap if the Green River floods sometime this
year or in 2010.
The Associated Press confirmed today that the King County Council has approved an agreement to bring up to 114 to Kitsap if the Green River floods the Regional Justice Center in Kent.
I spoke with Ned Newlin, Kitsap County’s chief of corrections, today about the logistics. He said King County will get space in an unused, older portion of the jail and inside the soon-to-be closed work release facility. King County will pay $28 per day, per inmate for such use, and will provide its own corrections staff (hence why they’re not paying the regular $80 per inmate per day that cities like Port Orchard pay).
King County is bracing for possible Green River flooding because of a weakened abutment at the Howard Hanson Dam.
(Photo of King County’s Regional Justice Center from King County’s web site.)
