When the Kent city jail fills up, staff will send extra inmates to the Yakima County Jail.
The Kent City Council last month approved an agreement with Yakima County to house inmates the rest of the year for the city when it has no empty beds. Kent previously contracted with Chelan County to handle extra inmates, but that agency asked out of its contract because of population limits at its Wenatchee jail.
“This if for purposes of overpopulation, particularly with female inmates, which are continually in overpopulation,” said Kent jail commander Diane McCuistion in a report last month to the council’s Public Safety Committee. “This will replace the Chelan County contract. They are dealing with population issues and can’t continue the contract.”
Kent had contracted with Chelan County since 2011 as a way to handle a few extra inmates without paying for costs to expand the city jail.
The city jail opened in 1986 and houses misdemeanor offenders sentenced to less than one year. That includes offenses such as domestic violence, drunk driving, minor assaults and petty theft.
City officials checked out several options to replace Chelan County and found the best deal in Yakima County at a cost of $54 per day per inmate, McCuistion said. Kent paid $70 per day under the Chelan County contract. The per day costs includes inmate transportation between Kent and Yakima.
Prices for contracts to house extra inmates at the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) in Des Moines are about $100 per day. SCORE, which opened in 2011, serves the cities of Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila. Kent decided to keep its jail rather than joining the other South County cities to build a new jail. Many of those cities used to contract with the Yakima County Jail.
“They are eager to expand their business with contracting,” McCuistion said about Yakima County. “They are opening a new annex building so they are in the business of housing inmates from other agencies.”
Kent’s jail doesn’t get filled up very often.
“Last week we sent eight (women) over there,” McCuistion said to the council committee. “We had 34 females in custody and have 20 female beds, so some were in the library for housing. We reached out to them (Yakima) and they accommodated us.”
The city’s contract with Yakima County covers males and female inmates.
Jail staff decides when it’s necessary to send inmates to Yakima based on population and what number is manageable, according to jail officials. Staff follows a procedure to determine which inmates to send away, primarily based on length of stay, so inmates who have been sentenced and might have a short amount of time left on their sentence could get sent to Yakima.
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