Bus ticket out of town not good enough for City of Everett
Monday we told you about the proposed contract between the City of Seattle and the Snohomish County Jail to house Seattle prisoners in Everett and then release them with a bus ticket home.The agreement would save the City of Seattle about $1 million dollars in jail costs in the course of a year over housing them in the King County jail.
The Seattle City Council budget committee approved the idea and the Mayor of Seattle is expected to sign the agreement and send it to the Snohomish County Council for approval later this month.
One portion of that contract bothers Everett City leaders. It calls for Seattle to only provide a voucher to the prisoner for transportation back to Seattle once they have served their time.
Everett wants to see more than return bus tickets for Seattle and any other city who has a contract to house prisoners at the Snohomish County Jail. Everett wants a clause that requires the prisoner to be physically transported to the city of arrest or to be physically picked up by a relative. Here’s the email reply to our question on how the city view’s the bus ticket arrangements from Meghan Pembroke at the City of Everett…
Legally, once an inmate has been released (on bail or after they’ve completed their sentence), we cannot require them to remain at a location. However, Yakima County is committed to returning inmates to Everett and not releasing them on their streets, so they provide transport for inmates back to Everett following their release (as described on the first page of the contract).
Here is the contract between Everett and Yakima.
Later this month the proposed contract between Seattle and Snohomish County will come before the Snohomish County Council for approval and City of Everett leaders say they will be at that hearing to speak against the contract if it does not provide for more than a bus ticket back to Seattle.
Everett is also asking that all other jail contracts that only provide a bus ticket back to the city of arrest either be amended to include the provision of physical return to the city of arrest or to add that provision to the contract once it is up for renewal.
November 19, 2015
Everett, Everett Government