CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION _________________
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A RESOLUTION recognizing the obstacles faced by previously incarcerated individuals that often result in recidivism, and the potential to reduce recidivism rates, criminal justice costs, and incarceration's negative impacts on individuals, the community, and the City of Seattle; requesting the Mayor to establish a Prisoner and Community Corrections Re-entry Work Group composed of residents, City departments, the Seattle Municipal Court, and the Legislative Department to coordinate and strengthen the City's efforts to assist prisoner community re-entry.
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WHEREAS, in 2015 approximately 2.2 million people were incarcerated nationally - a 500 percent increase in the last 30 years; and
WHEREAS, in 2015 16,675 adults were incarcerated in Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) prisons, with an additional 17,064 under DOC Community Supervision and another 12,618 people on average per day in local jails, with approximately 2,800 jailed in King County; and
WHEREAS, in 2014 about 20 percent of the almost 8,000 individuals released from DOC were released to King County; and
WHEREAS, people of color are disproportionately represented among those released in King County; a 2003 reentry study demonstrated that while African-Americans were only six percent of King County's population, 41 percent of people released from DOC were African-Americans, and while Latinos were only six percent of King County's population, 18 percent of people released from DOC were Latinos; and
WHEREAS, Seattle is home to a significant number of released prisoners - primarily in the downtown commercial district and the central residential neighborhoods that extend down through south Seattle and the Rainier Valley; and
WHEREAS, national corrections costs exceed $70,000,000,000 per year, with most of the total borne by state and local governments, DOC spends an average of $46,897 per year for each inmate, and it costs King...
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