Report finds Adams County Jail inadequate

At the request of former Adams County Sheriff John Hunt, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) conducted a Local Jail and Justice System Assessment (LJJSA) of the Adams County Jail located in Ritzville and recently published a report of their findings.

An LJJSA involves the inspection of facilities and processes, and considers all justice system components.

Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner presented the report in its entirety to the County Commissioners on Jan. 11.

The assessment was done onsite on Aug. 10 - 12 of 2015. The report shows the jail building, though well maintained for 74 years, is recommended to be “replaced with a new, more cost effective, safer and constitutionally-sound facility.”

Within the last 10 years, there has been an increase in more violent felonies in the area, which poses a problem when it comes to the classification of criminals. This can create issues when separating inmates by gender, gang affiliation and type of crime, felony or violent.

The facility has been functioning at or beyond its full capacity of 30 beds in the last six to seven years. With a larger facility, there is the potential to rent bed space to other law enforcement organizations due to the jail’s ideal proximity to highways and interstates.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) is located in Ritzville and serves all Adams County. The two main populations within the county are found in Othello and Ritzville, though the Othello Township accounts for 85 to 90 percent of the jail population, according to the NIC study.

There are approximately 19,000 residents that call Adams County home. The demographics within this total differ within each of these two major populations.

While Adams County’s population is 65 percent white, Ritzville has 1,800 residents and a 94 percent white population. Othello has a larger population of 6,600 and 64 percent of the residents are Latino.

While the incarceration rates within the county have not increased greatly over the past few years the demographics within the jail population have changed drastically.

Misdemeanors have decreased while felonies have increased and more females are booked into jail as well as men. This causes challenges for required separations of populations.

Inmates are separated by sex and also by classification. These classifications can include minimum, medium, maximum, special needs and special management.

Due to the increase in varying classifications, several years ago the Adams County Commissioners investigated the cost impact of adding an additional 18-bed, two-story addition to the jail. The Commissioners ultimately decided not to proceed as the cost estimate topped $1 million.

If the decision is made to build the new facility elsewhere there is an opportunity to repurpose the jail due to its excellent physical condition.

“Despite the aged and heavily used facility, the jail is kept extremely clean and appears very well-maintained,” the report states.

The report explains despite the cleanliness, “The facility does not meet industry standards for jail operation and provision of services or the standard of care that is required, and operates with inadequate staffing levels.”

They determined the facility requires a minimum of 12 fully funded correctional officers, which includes a jail commander.

The report suggests the possibility of, “Risk of physical harm to staff and inmate resulting from inadequate staffing levels.”

“The jail is consistently understaffed due to budget restrictions. Due to low pay for the type of job responsibilities, burdens, stress, benefits, and shortcomings, they (ACSO) are having significant issues with recruiting,” the report explains.

They continue to identify the facility as being two positions short, one of which has been open for over eight months without being filled.

The NIC assessment showed the county’s budget to be well balanced. Because of this the county has a “solid foundation to invest in updating the criminal justice system functions resulting in improved public safety for its communities.”

The LJJSA report also recommends alternatives to incarceration as part of the improvements to the criminal justice system of the county.

These alternatives can include offering space within the facility for counseling and the option to pursue an AA or GED. The programs would be offered to non-violent offenders who are unlikely to become repeat offenders.

The facility itself was not built in a way that can meet industry standards for effective inmate supervision. One example of the inadequacies is in regards to the cameras that oversee each cell.

“All cells have one camera inside them but they also have several blind spots in violation of PREA (The Prison Rape Elimination Act), placing inmates and staff at risk,” the report states.

The dispatchers in the Adams County Emergency 911 Communications Center are in charge of monitoring the live feed from these cameras, as well as operating the electronic jail door control systems.

Another area identified as needing improvement is the creation of spaces for adequate medical and mental health assessment and treatment. This includes simple physical exams, health screening and triage.

The report noted the number of medical jail incidents increased from nine in 2013 to 26 incidents in 2014.

Normally the jail holds five inmates who require daily medications on average. They additionally must transport inmates to East Adams Rural Hospital for treatment. This on occasion requires the closing of the jail because frequently only one officer is on duty at a time.

According to the LJJSA report the current medical and mental health services offered at the jail do not meet the Constitutional requirements for institutionalized persons according to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA).

Some of the issues with the facility are outlined as the need for a safe and secure environment and environmental conditions.

A safe and secure environment can be obtained through the addition of a medical facility and the restructuring of the building.

The building currently has poor sightlines for officers due to the linear configuration of the facility. This causes safety issues not only for officers but also for the inmates.

The environmental condition issues stem from the older building. Though it was updated in the early 1990s there are still issues with the temperature within the building.

There is only one cell for women inmates and it holds four beds. In this room the window allows air to seep into the room so on cold days the inmates require a space heater to keep the room a comfortable temperature, which poses an additional risk.

As part of the assessment, the NIC representatives held two community meetings to share findings with the public and to answer any questions.

The first Town Hall was held in Ritzville on Aug. 11, in attendance were law enforcement officers and no members of the public.

They then held a meeting in Othello the next day on Aug. 12 with only one community member and still mostly law enforcement in attendance.

To elevate the issues NIC identified in their report, the recommendations are to, “Seriously consider new facility construction and involvement in the NIC Planning on New Institutions (PONI) program within 12 months of this report.”

They continue to explain, “Expansion and renovation of the exist (ing) facility is not recommended and is believed to be less cost-effective considering problems and limitation of the current facility.”

The Sheriff’s Office will reconvene with the County Commissioners to discuss the recommendations after they have had ample time to review the report.