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A senior law lecturer at the University of Washington says King County’s effort to build a new juvenile detention center in Seattle’s Central District sends the wrong message.

“I think it sends a message to our community that is struggling just to fund basic education,” told Seattle’s Morning News. “What we’re saying is we can’t fund basic education, but we can build a $210 million facility and take children away from their families.”

Related: Seattle mayor responds to criticism of juvenile jail

In 2012, voters OK’d a new $210 million courthouse and detention center that would replace the current structures that, as put it in an editorial, are “decrepit, cramped, and unsafe.”

Plans call for the new courthouse to be 137,000 square feet with 10 courtrooms. That is an increase of three courtrooms and 40,000 square feet.

There will be 10,200 square feet dedicated to non-detention youth program space, because of reductions in the juvenile detention population.

The new detention center will be 92,000 square feet with 112 detention beds and a design that allows for “flexibility to reduce detention space in the future.” According to the county’s website, the current facility has 212 beds.

Seattle’s Department of Construction and Inspections approved the county’s request for a master-use permit on Dec. 22.

Ambrose says there’s no need for so many detention beds. Right now, she says, an average of 50 children and teens are there a night.

“That’s great news, but it’s also where the disconnect is,” she said. She also argues that the detention center doesn’t need to be replaced, it’s the courthouse that is too old.

In an , Ambrose and Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law Paul Holland say that by diverting our limited resources for a detention center “can only prolong the county’s persistent failure to eliminate racial disparities in its detention practices.”

“It’s clear who goes to detention,” Ambrose told Seattle’s Morning News. Children of color and those from poor communities include the bulk of the juvenile population, she says.

Ambrose says we have collectively failed to properly engage with children and provide places and programs to help them thrive. That $210 million being spent on a courthouse and detention center could be used to nurture youth, she says.

“We know if we invested in those things [youth programs] it would actually work,” she said. “We need to view kids as something to invest in.”

By “locking kids up,” Ambrose says, “we’re preparing them for a life of incarceration.”

The courthouse and detention facilities are expected to be complete by 2019.

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