Proposal calls for consolidated jail

County's cost estimate rises to $60 million

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published May 13, 2008

TUMWATER - The county would consolidate nearly all of its jail operations at a proposed new facility to be built in Tumwater under a plan recommended Monday by a corrections task force.

The Tumwater facility, once proposed as a satellite jail to be run in tandem with the existing jail at the county courthouse in Olympia, would be expanded and become the main jail, if the Thurston County Commission approves.

The new facility would house all jail operations except work release and be at Mottman Industrial Park.

The new jail would cost $60 million and house 608 inmates, an increase from the $40 million and 352 inmates for the satellite proposal. The existing jail at the courthouse has 408 beds.

Officials say the proposal, recommended by the task force out of three options discussed Monday, would save $2.5 million annually in personnel and other costs by eliminating most of the old jail operations. The savings would result from cutting total staff from 183 to 167 positions and reducing costs for food, medical care, transport and other daily operations.

"It's no surprise," said Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball, who added that he didn't think it would be cost effective to run two jails.

The county developed plans for the scaled-down satellite facility - called the Accountability and Restitution Center - in 2005, after voters defeated a May 2004 ballot measure for a $102.7 million regional justice center.

The justice center would have housed all jail services along with space for courtrooms, judges and prosecution staff.

The county will proceed next week to announce construction bids for the first phase, expected to cost $40 million, a $5 million increase because of various design changes.

The consolidation would require building an additional $20 million wing, with 256 beds, along with the first 352-bed phase of the project.

The county would delay moving any inmates or opening the new facility for a year until 2011, when the added wing is finished.