To address potential jail overcrowding, the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) has approved a one-year extension of its contract with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office to secure contingency plans for inmate overflow.
Sheriff Derek Sanders addressed the extensio on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
"This is a backup contract with Lewis County Jail for overflow housing," Sanders said.
He added that although no transfers have occurred since October 2019, the agreement remains essential if space constraints ever become an issue.
The amendment extends the contract through Dec. 31, 2025, at a daily rate of $103.69 per inmate. The current rate, in place until the end of 2024, is $94.27 per inmate per day.
“We have not booked anyone in there since, I believe, 2019, but the jail population is starting to back up just a little bit,” Sanders said.
The sheriff detailed the rising population pressure within the Thurston County Jail.
“We’re over 300 inmates now. So again, this is just a contingent contract that we routinely extend each year,” Sanders explained.
“Lot of crime. I mean, the reality is, is that most of the people sitting in our jail, quite frankly, are there for much more serious crimes," said Sanders when District 1 Commissioner Carolina Mejia asked about the factors driving the increase.
"We’ve got an overflow in the max unit. Currently, we don’t have enough space in our max unit, which is where single cells are,” Sanders added.
Sanders highlighted the strain on the county’s jail facilities, particularly in the maximum-security unit, where space is limited.
“We’ve got a lot of mentally ill individuals in those cells. So we have one person taking up two cells, as a result of that population constraint. We’ve had to move individuals, who would normally be housed in the max unit into the dorms," Sanders said.
“We have a lot of career-armed criminals. We have people in there who have class A felony convictions. So we’re just constantly trying to move people around in the jail and classify them so that they’re safe, that they’re not getting into fights and things like that.”
Despite the rising numbers, Sanders noted that current jail occupancy remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels.
“Right now, I think we’re at just over 300 and pre-COVID we were at 480, I believe," he said.
The contract aligns with the Thurston County Law and Justice Council’s 2024–26 Strategic Plan, specifically supporting Goal #4: Use data and evidence-based practices can build a more effective and efficient criminal justice system.
While the plan emphasizes data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency, the extension serves as a precautionary measure to address potential capacity challenges and safeguard inmate and staff safety.
The BoCC approved the amendment, effective through Dec. 31, 2025.
The amendment authorizes the sheriff or a designee to execute the contract and any future amendments, provided they do not exceed 10% of the agreed-upon rate.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
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