When Snohomish County opens a new jail in Everett next year it can expect little but millions of dollars in losses.
Or perhaps not.
The county corrections department this week unveiled a range of options for opening the 640-bed jail in spring 2005, including one to turn the new lockup into a money-maker.
The proposal would put the county in the business of leasing extra jail cell space that will be available once the new $68.2 million facility opens.
If everything works as projected, the county could generate about $4.7 million a year by keeping other areas’ prisoners under lock and key.
That’s nearly $350,000 more than the anticipated cost of hiring the additional 83 corrections officers and other staff needed to operate the new jail and the existing one, corrections director Steve Thompson said Thursday.
“Our plan reduces the net operating cost for the county,” Thompson said.
Other alternatives, which don’t include marketing the county’s extra jail space, could add up to $3 million a year in staffing expenses with no corresponding revenue increase.
Thompson’s proposal is just beginning to undergo review by others in county government, but it looks promising, said Susan Neely, who oversees criminal justice matters for County Executive Aaron Reardon.
She stressed that even under the plan, the new jail will bring additional operating and maintenance expenses.
Depending on how the numbers are crunched, the county’s corrections costs are expected to jump up to $7 million a year.
Thompson sent a copy of his jail staffing plan to the County Council on Wednesday. He expects to make a presentation by early August.
The state is interested in exploring how Snohomish County could help ease crowding in Washington’s prison system, said James Thatcher, classification chief for the state corrections department.
Washington’s 16 adult prisons house more than 16,000 offenders and are operating at 139 percent of capacity. In 2003 the state shipped off 240 offenders to Nevada, and this month began moving another 300 to a privately run prison in Colorado.
The state spends about $71 a day to lock up inmates under the contracts – comparable to what it costs to keep inmates here, Thatcher said.
Some people in prison, particularly those sent back to serve short stretches for infractions after release, may be good candidates for incarceration in a county jail, Thatcher said. The state already pays to house some inmates in jails in King and Benton counties and has had preliminary discussions about the potential for a similar arrangement in Snohomish County, he added.
The county is building the new jail to cure crowding problems of it own. The existing lockup, built to house 477 inmates, routinely houses 600 or more, with many sleeping on mats on the floor.
Once the new jail opens, the county projects it will have enough room to absorb nearly 300 additional prisoners under contract. The extra space will gradually diminish as the county’s population grows, but likely won’t be used in full by local inmates until 2014.
Those projections are based on the county making full use of the existing jail, the new jail as well as the 280-inmate minimum-security lockup at Indian Ridge near Arlington.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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