Thurston County revisits jail space needs as capacity strain returns

Thurston County commissioners on Saturday reviewed the history and options for addressing a longstanding shortage of jail space, tracing plans back to a 2016 memo and describing how criminal-justice reforms, rising mental-health and substance-use needs, and the COVID-19 pandemic changed the county's approach and financing.

The discussion laid out nine facility and program options — including a 120-bed “full” flex unit, a smaller 40-bed flex unit, renovation of an old jail on the Hilltop campus, partial renovations, converting or repurposing juvenile facilities, renovating a work-release facility on site, and bringing modular temporary units — and noted the operational as well as capital costs associated with each.

Board chair said the county built an initial phase of a new jail without a voter tax increase during the recession but never completed the originally planned second phase. Board materials in the packet include a 2016 memo and later briefings documenting options and high-level cost estimates. The county manager, Leonard Hernandez, and assistant county manager Jennifer Walker were present for the briefing.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the mismatch between available direct-supervision pod space and the growing number of people in need of individualized cells — driven in part by mental-health and substance-use needs — has re-emerged since jail booking returned to pre-pandemic levels. Commissioners and staff emphasized that capital decisions interact with operational…