Concerns surround ‘reopening’ of Thurston County jail. Here’s how it’s going so far

The Thurston County jail removed its pandemic-era booking restrictions this month, prompting renewed concerns about crowding and increased caseloads for attorneys and the courts.

The Thurston County Correctional Facility, located on Ferguson Street in Tumwater, once again began accepting bookings for people arrested for lower priority misdemeanor and felony crimes on Aug. 1.

In a statement to The Olympian, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Mike Brooks said the change had not caused any issues at the jail or led to a significant increase in bookings as of last week.

“While some days are more, other days do not have as many,” Brooks said. “This was consistent with bookings prior to COVID.”

However, law and justice workers in the county are monitoring the situation closely. Some are concerned a larger jail population may bring back crowding and lead to higher caseloads for prosecutors, public defense attorneys and the courts.

Sheriff Derek Sanders announced the jail would be “fully reopening” with a July 24 letter posted on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. He wrote that the jail is “significantly undersized” for a county of over 300,000 people. Before the pandemic, he said the jail operated at its “breaking point of max capacity.”

“Should we reach that point again, we will not jeopardize the safety of our deputies or the inmates and booking restrictions may once again be enacted starting with the lowest level misdemeanor crimes and warrants,” Sanders said in the letter.

The jail first implemented the restrictions in March 2020. The measures effectively reduced the average daily jail population from the mid-400s prior to the pandemic to the mid-200s after the pandemic began.

Brooks said the average daily jail population was 448 in 2018, 419 in 2019, 282 in 2020, 240 in 2021, 242 in 2022 and 243 in 2023 so far. When asked about the daily average since Aug. 1, Brooks said he was unable to share data for that period.

Attorney concerns

Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim indicated his office has “great concern” about the changes at the jail, when contacted by The Olympian.

“Unless law enforcement uses its discretion in making arrests, the management of the jail population will shift to the PAO and the courts,” he said in a statement.

There are only two ways the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office can manage the jail population on its end, according to the response. It can limit the cases in which they recommend money bail be posted and delay charging some cases where law enforcement has made an arrest.

In his public letter, Sanders said he hoped this change would hold more people accountable for alleged criminal activity. However, the PAO response said it will continue to prioritize violent and serious crime when seeking bail and making charging decisions.

PAO Chief of Staff Christy Peters clarified that charging decisions for all referrals are made on a case-by-case basis. She added the PAO would not refuse to charge a certain category of crime regardless of the circumstances.

“We don’t do that because there might be what is considered a fairly low-level crime … but if that individual has a great deal of criminal history and is continuing to be a menace, essentially a danger to Thurston County, we’re going to look at that differently.”

Staffing levels at the PAO also have been a concern. There have been many vacancies and older case backlogs that are limiting staff capacity, Peters said.

“We do not have sufficient staff or resources to immediately charge every referral,” Peters said. “We have not been fully staffed since before the pandemic.”

There are 11 vacancies out of the 28 criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys the PAO has funding for, according to PAO spokesperson Tara Tsehlana.

Four of those vacancies are for attorneys dedicated to a backlog of cases that developed during the pandemic, Tsehlana shared.

Two of them are attorneys focused on addressing a backlog of cases affected by Washington State v. Blake, a 2021 decision that invalidated the state’s felony drug possession law.

Since the state of the pandemic, the PAO has been losing lawyers to local municipalities, state employers and the private sector, Peters said.

“The real issue is our ability to recruit and retain lawyers because our current salaries for all of our deputy prosecutors are set by the Board of County Commissioners,” Peters said. “They’re not competitive.”

To reduce the number of unnecessary bookings, Peters said the PAO is working with the Sheriff’s Office to identify pre-pandemic cases in warrant status that should be dismissed.

“If they’ve been on outstanding bench warrant status, it would be very challenging if not impossible to prove any charges because the evidence has gone stale,” Peters said.

The Sheriff’s Office has sent the PAO over 900 misdemeanor warrants that were outstanding from 2011 to 2019 to review so far, Peters said. The PAO expects to dismiss a great majority of those misdemeanor cases.

Lower-level felony warrants are expected to be reviewed at a later date, Peters added.

Director of Public Defense Patrick O’Connor told The Olympian his office expects to get more clients as jail bookings increase. But he said it remains to be seen what the impact will be.

“We’ve already seen in 2023 a rise in clients that are appointed to the public defenders’ office in both Superior Court and in juvenile court,” O’Connor said. “We’re monitoring those increases on a monthly basis, and I have a finite number of staff to be able to represent defendants.”

Additionally, O’Connor said many clients in the jail are still expressing concerns about getting COVID-19.

“It’s not as though COVID has gone away,” O’Connor said. “People are still testing positive for COVID. It’s still in our community although the restrictions aren’t in place anymore.”

Lt. Mike Brooks said every person entering the county jail is still being tested for COVID-19 and being quarantined as needed.

The courts weigh in

Thurston County Superior Court is keeping a “close eye” on case filing numbers and plans to adjust its scheduling if it sees a surge in cases, Court Administrator Kristin Jensen shared in a statement to The Olympian.

“Superior Court operates with a lean staff of judicial officers and professional staff that presents challenges to meet current caseload demands,” Jensen said. “Court staffing will undoubtedly be challenged with an increase in criminal case filings.”

Jensen said Superior Court is recruiting to fill critical vacancies and plans to request additional funding from the Board of County Commissioners in response to increasing caseload demands.

Superior Court removed its social distancing requirements in the courtroom last October. This allowed the court to hold up to four jury trials at a time. Before then, the court could only hold two at a time.

The court has completed 24 criminal trials in 2023 as of Aug. 1, Jensen said. Previously, the court completed 26 in 2022, 23 in 2021 and 19 in 2020.

Before the pandemic, Jensen said the court was completing 50-60 55 criminal jury trials per year.

Case filings at Thurston County District Court also are trending towards pre-pandemic levels, Court Executive Officer Frankie Peters shared.

Before 2020, he said 5,000 to 6,000 misdemeanor cases were filed with the court each year. He said it’s too early to tell how reopening the jail will affect their caseload.

“We continue to put our best efforts to supporting these trends with the resources that are available to us,” Peters said.

District Court completed about 50 jury trials each year before the pandemic, Peters said. In the last two years, he said the court has held 15 jury trials each year.

He said there have been no pandemic-related stays on jury trials after March 2022 and pandemic-related courtroom restrictions were lifted in October 2022.

When asked if District Court has any concerns about the jail reopening, Peters said the court philosophically supports various treatment and monitoring programs that offer an alternative to incarceration.

“A primary lesson we have learned from our pandemic experience is that the fewer people we have in jail, the better,” Peters said. “These programs all move us further in that direction without sacrificing community safety.”

More people will be booked into the Thurston County jail starting Aug. 1. Here’s why