King County officials will soon start a book-and-release program at county jails in Kent and Seattle for people arrested for stealing cars, vehicle prowls and other non-violent felony crimes.

Jail staff will release anyone arrested for such a crime within hours rather than a few days after police officers bring them in to the Maleng Regional Justice Center (RJC) in Kent or the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle. The new policy starts Feb. 1 as a way to cut costs by about $5.2 million over the next two years by keeping vacant units at each jail closed.

“This will not result in more people being released from jail into Seattle or Kent,” said Chad Lewis, deputy director of communications for County Executive Dow Constantine, during a phone interview. “This will result in people being released within a few hours rather than few days (after a hearing before a judge). They will be arrested, booked and detained.”

Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas opposes the new policy, approved by Constantine. Thomas and other police chiefs in the county were notified by county officials at a Jan. 8 meeting about the jail population management plan. County jails handle all felony cases.

“Quite frankly with the RJC right here in Kent that’s a jail with a capacity of 1,200 beds and they have an average daily population between 700 and 750 inmates,” Thomas said during an interview at his office. “They are not being released because there is not enough room in jail. They are being released to save money and it’s on the backs of citizens who are victimized.”

Thomas said there were about 12,000 stolen vehicles in King County in 2014, more than the combined number of stolen cars in Snohomish, Pierce, Clark, Thurston and Spokane counties.

“Washington state has the highest property crime rate of any other state in the country,” Thomas said. “So if the majority is occurring in King County, I don’t think it’s the right policy decision to take people who are committing crimes such as auto theft, identity theft and car prowling and immediately releasing them with no accountability is the appropriate thing to do at the same time we have the highest (property) crime rate in the country.”

Thomas has concerns about the implication the book-and-release policy sends to police officers as well as car thieves.

“It’s really concerning the message it sends not only to our police officers who work hard to figure out these crimes and catch the bad guys and have the suspects immediately released from custody,” Thomas said. “But also the message it sends to the suspects that you can go out and steal a car but there’s no accountability because you are going to be immediately released from custody so what’s to keep you from doing it again?”

County officials disputed Thomas’ statement that the quick release would result in more crimes by the same person.

“Research by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) never showed any indication that incarceration is what addresses the underlying crime which is where everybody is looking at prevention efforts,” said Lewis, a former state DOC spokesman. “The message is this is the least amount of impact to public safety. What difference is a stay of six hours versus 48 hours? I haven’t seen anything that indicates staying in that extra 30-plus hours had a significant impact on their behavior.”

William Hayes, director of the county’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, agreed with Lewis.

“If somebody’s idea is to steal cars when they are not in custody, there’s probably an underlying reason behind it, typically some kind of drug addiction, so unless you address the underlying issues regardless whether it’s a week or two months (in jail) they will probably go out and do it again,” Hayes said.

Lewis added a few extra days in jail won’t deter people who want to steal cars or other items.

“If someone were to be released on Saturday instead of Monday, I don’t know if there’s a lot of research out there that would have done any significant impact to their behavior,” Lewis said.

Police officers can ask jail staff to override the early release if they think there are reasons the person should be held until he or she appears before a judge or bails out.

The crimes that fall under the new policy include auto theft, fraud, gambling, hit and run, malicious mischief, perjury, reckless endangerment, stolen property, theft, vehicle prowl and drug possession.

The average daily jail population for the county jails in Kent and Seattle is about 1,900 per day, Hayes said. The number of inmates has continued to go up the last few years but jail officials want to reduce that number with the early release program to save on jail staffing costs.

“The alternative would be budget cuts to sheriff’s deputies, prosecutors, public defenders and court staff who have already been impacted by cuts,” Lewis said if funds were spent to open up more jail units. “It’s designed to avoid spending another $5.2 million over the next two years that would add to the general fund deficit.”

Lewis said the county budget faces deficits in part because of the state property tax growth limit of 1 percent per year while costs go up 3.5 percent each year.