Proposal would jail pretrial detainees in Yakima

[icymist]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001890391_pretrial29m.html


Monday, March 29, 2004 - Page updated at 12:05 A.M.

Proposal would jail pretrial detainees in Yakima

By Bob Young
Seattle Times staff reporter

The single biggest spending cut in the budget-balancing package the Seattle City Council will vote on today is emerging as the most contentious.
It's a proposal to save the city $730,000 this year by sending 40 inmates now housed in the King County Jail across the Cascade Mountains to Yakima, where the city rents jail beds at a lower cost.

Public defenders are upset about the proposal because the inmates would not be those already convicted of crimes. Instead, they would be pretrial detainees, or those who are accused of misdemeanors but who have not been found guilty.

The plan is a "radical shift" from the city's existing policy and would "hurt families, compromise important rights of the detainees and place extreme strain on our ability to represent our clients effectively," according to an analysis prepared by three public-defender agencies.

(more)

[pw]

1. Punishment first, trial later

Sounds like a really eficient idea.

[pscot]

2. Doesn't this smack of "Cruel and Unusual"

Jail is bad enough, but Yakima?