Spokane County officials warn jail capacity could be strained by 2028 as dashboard shows current relief

Ken Moore, a project manager for Spokane County, told the SRLJC that the county’s detention-services dashboard shows current population levels below maximum capacity but flagged trends that could strain operations within a few years.

“We have a max capacity of 915,” Moore said, referring to combined capacity at the downtown jail and the Geiger facility. He and jail leadership told the council the total population on the day of the briefing was 770, below last month’s average of 819 and last May’s average of 858, but rising trends in felony arrests and longer stays remained a concern.

The dashboard and presenters laid out why: operational peaks, a rising share of violent offenders and an average custody length of stay for people currently in custody of 113 days. By contrast, Moore said the average length of stay for those released is about 20 days, a number lowered by short book-and-release cases. The jail reported 25 “red light” incidents in the previous 30 days — periods when booking doors were closed — totaling about 57 hours.

Why it matters: the county has relied on the Geiger facility as a relief valve for downtown capacity. Moore said Geiger needs extensive capital investment and that county work done years earlier estimated an “environmental system retrofit” — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofs and windows — at roughly $40–$45 million, with alternative engineered temporary structures also costing tens of millions. County staff warned that if Geiger were unavailable, projections show the downtown jail could approach felony-only occupancy in the next several years. Moore said, refreshed as of April, the model shows a possible shift toward a felony-dominated population by March 2028 if current trends persist.

Staffing and operating constraints were also central to the discussion. County staff reported ongoing vacancies of roughly “the low twenties” for corrections officers, persistent overtime, and concerns about staff burnout. The jail recently transitioned medical services to a new contractor (identified in the briefing as Nafcare/Everhealth), a contract that began Feb. 1 and runs into early 2028; staff said medical costs have increased by “over 50% from last year.”

The dashboard provides interactive breakdowns of highest charges, billing agencies and holds. Moore said felony B cases are increasingly prominent — the dashboard showed 268 people with felony B as the highest charge — and that holds for the U.S. Marshals Service and the Washington Department of Corrections have ranged 60–80 recently, with 70 holds on the day of the briefing. Those holds have been used as a relief valve during peak periods.

Several members of the SRLJC and visiting judges connected dashboard figures to court processing and pretrial practice. “That hundred and 13 days, that’s really telling because that’s closely monitored and closely affected by court performance,” the council chair said during the session. Judge Beggs framed a policy opportunity: “The Medicaid waiver program that’s coming to Washington … will allow us to do that for everyone who comes for their first 90 days,” she said, describing the potential to fund reentry and case-management services during the early incarceration or pretrial period.

Council members and staff discussed a range of operational and capital options: adding bunks and reworking plumbing and egress, retrofitting old cells in the Public Safety Building, relocating operational units to free space, and the high cost of repairing or replacing Geiger. Presenters said early estimates for deep refurbishment of Geiger were in the tens of millions and that “sprung” engineered tent structures used elsewhere also carried very high price tags. County staff cautioned that many solutions create secondary demands for staff, training and infrastructure.

Participants suggested programmatic and system changes to reduce jail pressure: expanded pretrial case management, triage centers to divert people with behavioral-health needs before jail booking, use of electronic monitoring and improved court practices to reduce failures to appear. Judge Beggs and others said jurisdictions that treat initial detention as an opportunity for immediate case planning — “like an emergency room” for reentry and services — have reduced time in custody without sacrificing public safety.

No formal vote was taken. Moore and the chair asked SRLJC members and stakeholders to submit written ideas for options the county should evaluate and said those suggestions would be compiled for the Board of County Commissioners and task forces working on jail modernization and related interventions.

Looking ahead: county staff said they will continue to update the public dashboard, provide periodic reports to courts on lengthy stays, and coordinate with local courts and regional task forces on triage, diversion and the Medicaid waiver implementation. The SRLJC will fold member suggestions into a summary for the Board of County Commissioners and for the county’s internal planning teams.