Dow ConstantineVerified account

King County is building a new youth detention center in Seattle. There is a group of people who want the building stopped. They've filed a lawsuit. They've chained themselves to the construction site fence. Attorney and activist @NikkitaOliver is part of that group. #KUOWrecord

Oliver says building a new $233M detention center flies in the face of our zero detention goal, when the current facility could be remodeled for $1M.

Aside: @kcexec was on #KUOWrecord yesterday discussing this issue.https://twitter.com/KUOW/status/986319159205117952 …

Nikkita Oliver cont'd: No one has said we need to close down the old facility. We're saying that building a new facility is investing $233M in a system we know doesn't work. A zero-detention county requires a public health approach.

Oliver: When Angela Davis was here she said in her keynote speech: If you build it, you will fill it.

Oliver: The county has written in its own report that the old youth detention facility can be useable. Our county is huge. We need to dislocate services from jails and courts and put them in young people's communities

Oliver: If we're willing to spend $233M on a new facility for the old method of punitive justice in Dr. Martin Luther King County, then we need to ask ourselves what we'll spend on restorative justice. King said there's no time like the present to do the right thing.