COUNTY COUNCIL PANEL BACKS CUTS IN CRIMINAL-JUSTICE BUDGET

The three people sat calmly before a county committee yesterday, talking
about saving a place called Cedar Hills.

"Before I went into Cedar Hills, my life was a wreck," said Gladys Dampier,
describing how she had been a drug user for 10 years. "Cedar Hills has been
a good place for me."

"I am a miracle that Cedar Hills blossomed," said Kevin Goodwin, a
recovering alcoholic.

"I'm a crack addict," said Jarvis Bailey. "My life was unimaginable. On
behalf of all the clients at Cedar Hills, don't close it. That's all I have
to say."

The speakers were among about a dozen appearing before the Law, Justice and
Human Services Committee of the Metropolitan King County Council yesterday
as the county moved toward making some of the most profound changes ever to
its criminal-justice system.

The committee approved a plan that calls for reductions in the use of the
jail and in "overall criminal-justice expenditures."

"It is the policy of King County ... to encourage alternatives to the use
of secure detention for adult offenders," the plan says.

Under the plan, inmates who are flight risks or violent offenders would
continue to be jailed.

But a summary of the justice plan noted that "the jail has provided, by
default, emergency housing, psychiatric and medical services for people who
become involved in the criminal-justice system because of their mental
health or chronic physical conditions related to the substance abuse."

The new plan intends to change such policies.

"This is the first time we will have established a policy for who gets into
the King County Jail," said Councilman Larry Gossett, committee chairman.

The plan is expected to result in cuts next year for the budgets of such
institutions as the district and superior courts and the Sheriff's Office.
County Executive Ron Sims is to use the plan, which goes to the full
council for consideration July 22, to make recommendations in preparing a
proposed 2003 budget in October.

The plan - known as the Adult Justice Operational Master Plan - has been
more than two years in the making, but there is new urgency for it because
the county is running out of money.

Most of the $497 million in the county's current-expense fund is being
sucked up by criminal-justice costs of around $337 million. What's left is
supposed to run things such as the Cedar Hills Addiction Treatment Facility
that are lumped under the title of human services.

With a $52 million shortfall expected in the current-expense fund next
year, it's human services that are taking the cuts. Cedar Hills, near Maple
Valley, is likely to close by next year.

Jackie MacLean, acting director of the county Department of Community and
Human Services, said, "To keep Cedar Hills open is going to require an
ongoing general-fund subsidy of $3.5 million."

"A year?" asked Gossett.

That's right, MacLean said.

Closing Cedar Hills is among some $37 million in human-services cuts
expected next year. Most of the clients are the poorest in the community,
lacking insurance and unable to pay for private aid. Seventy-six percent
have no income, and 93 percent make less than $500 a month.

What would happen to the approximately 2,000 people a year who are treated
at Cedar Hills? Some speakers suggested those people would mostly return to
crime to support their drug habits, making them candidates to add to the
jail population the new justice plan is intended to thin out.