Corrections to present food-service contract change and continued Ecology grant for offender work crews

Cowlitz County corrections leadership told commissioners Monday that the county’s food-service vendor, Trinity, will raise rates for juvenile and adult meals under a new contract structure, and that the department will continue using a Department of Ecology grant to reimburse work-crew litter removal. “Currently the price we're paying for juvenile is $2… the new price is $2.07,” the director of corrections reported about juvenile meals; for adult meals the county is moving from a fixed price of $1.96 to a sliding scale, which the director said would place current adult-meal pricing at about $2.16 per meal based on current population. The director said Trinity’s sliding-scale adult price varies by population; at higher populations the vendor’s per-meal price decreases slightly, and the county will update the rate weekly based on population. Captain Moses negotiated the dollar amounts with the vendor, the director said. On the work-crew program, corrections staff said the county continues to participate in a Department of Ecology two‑year reimbursement grant that can reimburse up to $91,700 for litter-removal and related supervised work-crew activities. The department noted it now runs primarily out-of-custody crews because the in-custody population is not suitable for unsupervised community work crews. Why it matters: food-service costs affect jail operating budgets and per-detainee costs; the Department of Ecology grant offsets costs for the county’s supervised work crews that provide public litter removal while offering court-ordered or fine-based alternatives to incarceration. What was not decided: the new Trinity contract pricing and the Ecology grant were described to the board; the items were listed as agenda items for the commissioners’ upcoming meeting but no vote or final contract execution was recorded during the workshop. Ending: corrections staff said they will provide more detailed juvenile sliding-scale figures at the next meeting and continue to manage grant reimbursement and vendor communication.