Standing under a banner that read “Love the youth, hate the jail,” activists called for continued resistance to King County’s existing youth criminal justice strategies, including the construction of a new youth jail at 12th Avenue and Alder Street.
Despite overwhelming backlash from anti-youth jail protesters, King County continues to push forward with the construction of a youth facility in the Central District. The new King County Juvenile Detention Center is a $210 million project set to open in 2019. This project has been a hot-button issue around politics in Seattle for many years.
On a hot Thursday summer morning in a church in South Beacon Hill, I joined about 40 people of all ages, from youth to elders, to learn about racism. Organized by Youth Undoing Institutional Racism (YUIR), which is affiliated with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Tyree Scott Freedom School is a five-day summer camp, primarily for youth and young adults of color, which focuses on community organizing, learning a deeper analysis about racism and systems of oppression, and undoing racism in our society.
Over the past six years, since voters in King County passed a tax levy to pay for a new “Youth and Family Services Center,” opposition has been steadily and relentlessly growing. Hundreds of organizations and countless community members have been part of the No New Youth Jail campaign. As pressure mounts to stop construction, I want to make sure people are thinking not only about the youth jail the County continues to build this very minute, but also about the court facility that is part of the same construction project.