Civility laws are a nice of way saying that people aren’t allowed to sit on a sidewalk during the day or sleep in a park at night. In Seattle, such laws can rack up jail stays and long criminal histories for the homeless simply because they are relaxing in a public place.

The King County prosecutor doesn’t try such cases — the laws are Seattle’s, and the cases end up in Municipal Court — but the cases do contribute to an overfull King County Jail and cause people to suffer needlessly. That’s something that the two candidates running for County Prosecutor say they have their eye on not only for the human cost but the cost to the county.

“Being homeless should not be a crime,” says Democrat Bill Sherman, who debated interim prosecutor and Republican Dan Satterberg last week. “Too often, the jail and bail system treats it as if it is. We need to look at services as to how to prevent that.”

Sherman, a deputy prosecutor who is currently on leave, presents a number of good ideas that he’s gleaned from around the country. With both candidates pointing out that the seventh floor of the King County Jail is now the state’s de facto second-largest mental health facility, Sherman suggests doing what they do in New York: screening every person entering jail for mental illness.

He would also like to see the jail’s mental health services stepped up, an advocate hired to help the homeless get into court-ordered services, and a phone-in system created where people can check on their court dates — one way to stop the endless “no-show” warrants that are issued for people who have no place to receive a summons.

Extra services could be paid for by a one-tenth of a percent sales increase that both Sherman and Satterberg are hoping the King County Council will pass this year in order to generate $48 million for drug and alcohol treatment. But, after 17 years of working with Norm Maleng, the late King County prosecutor, Satterberg is more concrete in his proposals.

The Republican says the money could help fund a new receiving center where the homeless or mentally ill who commit low-level crimes — for instance, minor trespass or misconduct — could be taken instead of jail.

“I’m interested in giving some meat to a [state] bill passed last year that provides for post-arrest, pre-booking diversion [from jail],” Satterberg says.

The bill allows the prosecutor and local police to come up with a list of offenses for which a police officer can take an individual to a place staffed by mental health professionals that could double as a hygiene center. That way, he says, the person could be “met with a cup of soup and warm shower instead of a concrete holding cell.”

“I’m not saying don’t arrest people for that conduct,” Satterberg says, “but use the criminal justice system as an intervention point to redirect that case.”