The County Executive’s 2020 budget creates the new position of a Jail Population Manager. This individual will serve as a liaison between the entities that comprise the criminal justice system and help reduce a person’s average lengths of stay in the jail. This person will have the data available to monitor real time bookings and the status of stays that sometimes are artificially inflated due to trip points in the process. This will help people move through the jail quicker and, when paired with the Jail/Human Services Re-Entry Team created in the 2017 budget, can do so in a way that better aligns an individual’s needs with available services in a more timely fashion.
The Sheriff’s Office is coming off of a highly successful pilot initiative better connecting parents who are incarcerated with their children. The “Parenting Inside Out” program resulted from a partnership between the Sheriff’s Office, National Institute of Corrections, the UW School of Social Work, the UW Extension, and Literacy Link. The first class of ten individuals graduated this year. County Executive Parisi is creating a new Family Connections Coordinator in this budget to take Parenting Inside Out to scale in 2020 with the goal of strengthening the bond between parents and children subjected to the difficulties of incarceration.
