King County Auditor, Council to review community-based juvenile diversion contracts in 2025

January 7, 2025

The King County Council on Tuesday approved the King County Auditor’s plans to audit contracts held by the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) with community-based non-profits for juvenile diversion services, including the controversial Restorative Community Pathways (RCP) program. This latest audit plan comes in response to requests made last June by King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn.

“These programs rightfully need more scrutiny, given the many controversies by these community-based organizations and participants, including alleged instances of fraud, abuse, and subsequent criminal charges,” Dunn said. “The public must be able to trust that these programs are not only being administered effectively, but that individuals are not just simply falling through the cracks. Diversion programs may be the only meaningful chance the county has to intervene, and right now, it is highly questionable if we are doing so effectively in every case.”

In addition to the work of the Auditor, the King County Council has requested, as part of its 2025 budget, that DCHS report on how referrals to the RCP are handled and accounted for, including gaps between referral enrollment, success rates, and referral back to the prosecutor for non-compliance with the program. In 2023, 323 cases were referred by the prosecutor for an alternative diversion program, but only 227 enrolled, and of that 227, only 135 completed it.  Many kids are never contacted by their intended program, and the prosecutor is not notified of a failure to enroll for 6-12 months after the initial referral. Subsequently, many referred juveniles never complete the program or are charged with the original crime.

On June 11, 2024, Dunn requested that the Auditor look into the RCP program after a woman was shot to death in Shoreline by a juvenile who, having previously been referred to RCP for brandishing a firearm at a school and never engaged in the RCP program. The prosecutor’s office was not informed by the RCP program of the juvenile’s failure to connect with RCP for 10 months after the initial referral and therefore, were unable to charge the crime due to evidentiary issues. Subsequently the juvenile was charged for the Shoreline murder and is being held under $2 million bail pending trail.

This latest response by the Auditor and the Council comes after criticism last year of the DCHS internal review, following its hiring of Oakland-based ‘Impact Justice’ to evaluate the RCP program. The King County Prosecutor’s office criticized this move over concerns about impartiality, given that two years prior, ‘Impact Justice’ had written an open letter expressing support for RCP.

The Auditor has not yet finalized the scope of the inquiry but will primarily focus on contract compliance and monitoring of RCP, Family Intervention and Restorative Services (FIRS), and T3AMS (Theft3 Mall Safety). The Council requested report will focus on juvenile diversion referral and success metrics for RCP, with a due date of August 31, 2025, to the Law and Justice Committee.