Commissioner vows work on jail overcrowding
By Doug Nadvornick, Spokane Public Radio
Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke says one of the county’s biggest challenges this year will be to find a way to relieve overcrowding at the county jail.
The jail is the focal point of the county’s crowded criminal justice system. Mielke says, typically, the facility holds between 650 and 700 inmates. It was built to house 450.
“It is stretched to the seams to the point where we’ve gotta do something,” he said.
Mielke says the county commissioners haven’t yet decided whether to expand the current jail or to build a new one. He says the facility isn’t designed to efficiently meet the current needs and it may not be worth spending the money to remodel it.
Mielke says the jail houses a lot of people who don’t belong there. He says 60-percent of the inmates take medication for mental health problems, making it the third largest mental institution in the state.
“That’s not the most effective way, nor the most efficient way to serve those people. We have been working with our courts, with our judges to put together a mental health court to also look at alternatives to incarceration for the mentally ill and, again, to try to figure out how to serve their needs.”
Mielke says county officials will continue to use the Geiger Correctional Facility to house inmates and he says they’re intrigued by the idea of creating a spring-to-fall tent camp to house short-term non-violent offenders.