Department: Finance

Contact Person/Phone: Elise Downer/684-8076

CBO Analyst/Phone: Elise Downer/684-8076

Legislation Title:

AN ORDINANCE authorizing the Director of the Department of Finance to execute an agreement with the Yakima County Board of Commissioners for the provision of jail services for prisoners convicted of misdemeanor crimes and sentenced to a period of incarceration under the Seattle Municipal Code.

Summary of the Legislation:

This legislation allows the City to enter into a contract with Yakima County to house sentenced City of Seattle misdemeanants. This short-term contract does not commit the City to send a set number of prisoners; the City may send as few as it wants, or as many as Yakima has capacity for. This contract has been undertaken in response to Council Resolution #30444, passed on April 8, 2002, which directed the Executive, the Court, and Council staff to develop and implement an interim contract with Yakima County for the provision of jail services as an initial step towards a possible long-term contractual agreement with Yakima County for the provision of jail services.

Background (Include justification for the legislation and funding history, if applicable):

The City is faced with looking outside King County for inmate housing because the County expects to run out of capacity in the next several years. Yakima approached the City last summer to provide misdemeanant jail services, and has contracted with several other King County cities as well as other western Washington cities and counties for such services.

Although Yakima does not currently have capacity to house all post-sentence Seattle misdemeanant prisoners, they have approximately 50 beds available for our use during the short-term. Further, Yakima is hoping to expand their capacity to a level that will accommodate King County cities’ needs within the next year, based on a seven-year commitment from the cities to occupy a set number of beds. Before Seattle can make a long-term commitment to using Yakima, as we must exit the King County system, we need to evaluate the experience of the short-term program in Yakima.

Beyond capacity and a lower rate, Yakima also offers a wide-variety of treatment programs important to misdemeanant offenders, such as certified alcohol and drug treatment, anger management classes, and GED classes. They are also committed to putting in place certified treatment services for domestic violence offenders.

The City’s staffing costs related to this project are outlined below and include a full-time strategic advisor 2, a full-time bailiff, and a part-time contracted security employee. The strategic advisor in the Office of Policy and Management will provide project management and conduct the evaluation of the pilot. The bailiff will provide the “gatekeeper” function – coordination of data and paperwork between the Municipal Court, the King County Jail/Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, the Yakima County Jail, and the Renton Jail (for out-of-custody reports). Lastly, the contracted employee, an add to the City’s security contract, will escort visitors to the video visitation location in the Public Safety Building.

Public Private Partnership Review Status:

N/A

Is the legislation subject to public hearing requirements?

N/A

Fiscal Sustainability Issues (related to grant awards):

N/A

Estimated Expenditure Impacts:

The expenditure below assumes that Yakima houses an average of 50 City prisoners per day for the 90-day trial period. Each prisoner day costs $46. The cost of housing 50 prisoners is $2300/day of the program.

Staffing costs include $17,346 for a Strategic Advisor II in the Office of Policy and Management to serve as a project manager/evaluator; $9,443 for a Bailiff to staff the “Gatekeeper” function in the Municipal Court; and $2,400 for a contracted security employee to staff the video visitation booth two days a week.

FUND (List # and/or Account)	2002	2003	2004
General Subfund, Criminal Justice Contracted Services (VJ1) – maintenance day fees	$200,000
General Subfund, Criminal Justice Contracted Services (VJ1) – staffing costs	$29,189
TOTAL	$229,189

One-time $__229,189____ On-going $____________

Although the City will receive no revenue for this program, each prisoner housed in Yakima in lieu of the King County jail will cost the City $30 less per day. For the trial period, the cost avoided when compared with costs in King County should be approximately $100,000.

Estimated Revenue Impacts:

FUND (List # and/or Account)	2002	2003	2004
TOTAL

One-time $___________ On-going $____________

Estimated FTE Impacts:

FUND	2002	2003	2004
General Subfund, Criminal Justice Contracted Services (Org: VJ1)	0.6 FTE for 90-day pilot (approximately 2.4 FTE annually)
TOTAL	0.6 FTE

# Full Time ____ # Part Time ____ # TES/contracted services ___0.6 FTE____

Do positions sunset in the future?If yes, identify sunset date?

TES positions will not be continued outside of the short-term pilot. Should the City decide to enter into a long-term contract with Yakima, it is expected that permanent positions will need to be created. The classification and compensation of such permanent positions will be formulated during the evaluation period based on experiences during the short-term program.

Other Issues (including long-term implications of the legislation):