My thoughts keep returning to the article written by the Kent Police Chief and published in our Reporter.
The chief said that “citizens outside the criminal justice system” may be confused by Kent’s decision to not join other south King County cities in the construction and operation of a jail system.
Is there a set of citizens outside the justice system? If a 15-year-old child is beaten in our jails by our employees are we not at fault? If our prosecutors administer a hand slap and a no no to the offending employee and nothing more, we are at fault. We the people are the justice system.
That our city of Kent did not join with the other cities for a jail system is short-sighted and wrong. We do have our own jail; we should have put it in the pot as a separate facility for women or juveniles. Our portion of the system would have been well on the way to being paid up by our jails worth.
I imagine when the police of the other cities come upon a bad boy with a Kent warrant they will be most happy to transport him and present him for lockup. What is the jail’s capacity, related to the number of warrants outstanding?
There is no one outside the criminal justice system. I am confused by our cities action related to a south county jail system. I am also confused that we are supporting so many police chiefs and police forces. Is it not in the taxpayers’ interest to have one METRO police force? King County Metro Police sounds right.
Arthur Dahlen
Kent
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
