EVERETT — Snohomish County officials said Friday they planned to reject an agreement to house up to 45 inmates from Whatcom County in the Everett jail due to staffing concerns.
Last month, the County Council about 60 miles to the north approved the $1.2 million contract to shuttle inmates from Bellingham to the Snohomish County Jail for the rest of this year. Their counterparts in Everett still had to ratify the proposal.
But the news of a possible agreement between the two counties was met with some staunch opposition. On Facebook, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin urged the Snohomish County Council to reject the contract.
“Vacancies at the County Jail must first prioritize individuals engaged in criminal activity here in Everett and Snohomish County before we allow other jurisdictions to occupy our resources,” she wrote Aug. 18.
Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers commented on the mayor’s Facebook post, noting his office and the council learned about the contract through the media.
“Plenty of questions and concerns,” he wrote. “Stay tuned.”
The Bellingham Herald first reported the agreement’s demise Thursday. The report cites an email from Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Corrections Chief Jamie Kane to his Whatcom County counterpart.
“When we started this conversation I was down about 17 vacant deputy positions,” Kane reportedly wrote in the email. “As of today, I’m down 42 and we have no applicants in the (queue) for Corrections Deputy. I tried as hard as I could, but this is out of my control.”
County spokesperson Kent Patton noted widespread hiring issues.
“Hiring is a problem for all of our departments and offices,” he said Friday. “It’s across the board.”
Snohomish County Councilmember Nate Nehring previously told The Daily Herald this proposal was a “win-win.” But in an email Friday, he said he met with Sheriff Adam Fortney this week, where he learned the jail staffing issues would put the proposal on hold. He said that decision made sense.
Kane’s email also noted Snohomish County officials were “inundated with complaints from their constituents” after an Aug. 17 article in The Daily Herald reported on the jail proposal.
The rejection came as a surprise to Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo. He maintained Friday that the proposal would’ve been a “win-win” for both counties, as he got “some desperately needed jail space and Snohomish County would have received substantial fiscal benefits related to renting some of their unused jail space.”
Elfo said his staff worked with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office for months on the plan.
The now-failed move came as Elfo reported a rising population in a chronically overcrowded jail. Between January and June, the number of inmates jumped by almost a third. Meanwhile, about one-fifth of the incarcerated people there have to be housed alone, reducing capacity by 35 beds. So staff resorted to housing people in spaces like a shower area and conference room.
Officials there have been trying for years to get a new jail built. In 2015, Whatcom voters defeated funding for a proposed facility with over 500 beds. Two years later, they again voted against a somewhat smaller plan.
The Snohomish County Jail has room for over 1,000 people. In early March 2020, the jail population hovered around 800. By later that month, it had fallen to 560 as the pandemic quickly shifted booking priorities. And on average this year, about 48% of the total capacity had been occupied, sheriff’s office spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe said last month.
In an email, O’Keefe had said the proposal wouldn’t much affect Snohomish County Jail operations. But in a one-sentence statement Friday, she wrote that “the county is not moving forward on the contract because of current staffing issues.”
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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