Jail Releases Not The Cause of Problems in Downtown Everett

Back on September 25th, Everett City Council Member Ron Gipson asked the city to send a letter to Snohomish County leaders demanding that agencies Snohomish County contracts with to house prisoners in the jail in Everett be required to pick up their inmates once they’ve served their time. Gipson cited the number of people found sleeping on sidewalks in downtown Everett as a major reason for wanting the letter. In checking with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office there are more than 40 contracts with various agencies to house prisoners in the Snohomish County Jail. Shari Ireton from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Offices says 19 of those contracts are with agencies outside of Snohomish County. Ireton says the Sheriff’s Office is reviewing the contracts with the various agencies and many of those agencies in fact do pick up their prisoners. Others, like Seattle, provide bus tickets for inmates to travel back to their area but inmates can’t be forced onto the bus. The majority of inmates released onto Everett streets after they have served their time actually come from Everett and surrounding cities as well as unincorporated Snohomish County. Ireton says the problems are related more to mental health treatment resources or lack of them and that the largest population of people with mental health issues in Everett is located at the Snohomish County Jail.

MyEverettNews.com checked with Everett Police and asked Deputy Police Chief Dan Templeman some questions about the issue. Here are the questions and his answers.

Q: Is this becoming an issue for the Everett Police Department?

A: –This is not a new issue, as many of these contracts have been in place for several years. Much of the recent attention has come from the assumption that many of the homeless and mentally ill subjects on our streets are inmates who have been released from the jail as part of these contracts. What we have discovered from interviews of subjects contacted in the downtown core by our officers over the past several weeks is that most of these individuals are not recently released inmates. Most individuals contacted by police have come to the city voluntarily and are attracted to the many services offered in north Everett/downtown (Compass Mental Health, the Mission, DSHS, Salvation Army, public transportation, etc.). Another big draw for them has been the church feeding programs in the area that provide free meals to homeless individuals.

Q: Have Everett Police had to deal with violent offenders from other jurisdictions being released onto Everett streets instead of being returned to the jurisdiction where they were shipped from?

A: -While I know that our officers have had contact with inmates released from the jail, I am not aware of any contacts that we’ve had with violent offenders who were contract inmates released from the jail onto the streets of Everett.

Q: What is the Everett Police response to the practice?

A: -Our response is that we have engaged the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office on this issue and are working cooperatively with the Sheriff and his staff to come up with a solution that best serves the citizens and businesses of Everett. Thus far, the Sheriff has been very receptive to the concerns raised and we are hopeful that we will come up with a positive outcome for all involved.

During the council meeting both Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and Deputy Chief Templeman said that when enforcement efforts are stepped up in one area the problems appear in another. For example, when enforcement is stepped up around the gospel mission the problems move downtown, when enforcement is stepped up downtown, the problems move to the neighborhoods. The City of Everett is working on various approaches to what all have said is a very complex problem.