SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane County Jail has been under a “red-light” status 49 times between July 1 and Oct. 26, meaning that the jail cannot accept any new offenders.
There’s different reasons for a red-light status, such as low booking staff, all staff are needed to deal with other significant issues or all cells are full.
“When we’re not accepting new prisoners, crimes are still happening and officers are bringing them in. They are lining up around the jail, four, five, six cars. And they will wait for hours,” Lt. Aaron Anderton with Spokane County Detention Services, said.
For the Spokane Police Department (SPD), which is short-staffed, when officers have to be removed from the streets to wait in lines, it has a substantial effect on how the department can assist the community.
“When officers take the initiative to address a specific problem, whether it’s Second and Division, or anywhere else in the City where we’re noticing a concentrated problem, those arrests are part of the solution. It’s pretty frustrating when you don’t have a resource to be able to accomplish that mission,” Assistant Chief of Police for SPD, Justin Lundgren, said.
The jail was on red-light status Thursday evening. On Wednesday, it was on another red-light status for nine and a half hours.
On Wednesday evening, SPD made two arrests following a string of car thefts from a dealership in North Spokane.
Because the jail was in a red-light status, the suspects could not be booked.
SPD had an officer wait with them until they were safely behind bars.
“It used to be relatively rare. But it happens several times a week, every week, now. I would probably estimate three to five times a week that we go on red-light status for some period of time,” Anderton said.
The jail now has to restrict the offenders kept in jail. Anderton told NonStop Local that the jail is filled with almost all felons.
The Spokane County Jail was built in 1986 with a capacity of 462 inmates.
“We’re at an average of 640 inmates every single day in the jail. In a jail that was built for 462. And that’s just the average. The worst thing is the peaks. At the end of the day, you only have so many cells and so many places you can do. So, when we’re hitting 700 on a Monday, which we do sometimes, there’s really nowhere else to put anybody,” Anderton said.
Measure One will be voted on during the November 7 election.
If passed, the measure would impose a .2% sales tax that would go to, in part, reducing overcrowding at the Spokane County Jail, and building new criminal detention facilities.
Those in favor believe that kind of an investment is much needed and will aid in addressing overall crime in Spokane.
Those opposed to the measure say the plans for new facilities and new improvements are not concrete and they do not want to waste the public’s time or money.
