The first step often is the most difficult. So it is laudable that a commission considering the future of the Clark County Jail has been sure-footed in its initial projection.
The Correction Facility Advisory Commission, a 24-member board examining the county’s outdated and undersized jail, has adopted the premise that the corrections facility will need between 850 and 880 beds by 2050. As commission members noted, planning for a facility that is too small will quickly lead to the same problems that exist now; planning for one that is too large could prove prohibitively costly to construct and operate.
Therefore, the most important part of this preliminary detail is that officials will seek a facility that can be expanded to allow for future growth. “One of the key values we adopted early on was that we would have a design capability for scalability,” commission chair Craig Pridemore said.
Plans must be developed for what the county will require in 30 or 40 or 50 years, rather than a short-term vision that will limit the ability to expand in the future. For now, the 850-bed projection will provide a guideline for the rest of the commission’s work, which is scheduled to conclude this summer.
Regardless of the eventual plans, the Clark County Jail presents a pressing — and costly — issue for local taxpayers. The jail was built in 1984 and is ill-suited to meet the needs of a county that has more than doubled in population since then. There are safety concerns for inmates and officers, along with troubled electrical and plumbing systems. The facility has a maximum of 590 beds serving an average daily population of 635, and the intake center is overburdened.
Two years ago, county officials commissioned a study by facilities consulting firm DLR Group. That study projected Clark County would require more than 1,100 jail beds by 2036 and presented various plans with expected costs ranging from $63 million to $284 million.
In order to settle on a number for capacity, the commission created a subcommittee. With variables such as county policy regarding the length of incarcerations and societal mores regarding corrections, it is difficult to project how many jail beds will be required in the coming decades.
Pridemore noted that the agreed-upon number of beds is less than that recommended by DLR Group, but it falls on the high side of the range suggested by the subcommittee.
Clark County Chair Eileen Quiring told The Columbian, “They chose the upper end of the range for beds, and I believe that is wise, as this new facility will have to serve the county for many years to come.”
All of which is certain to generate discussion among Clark County residents, given that the correctional system is an integral part of public safety and that fiscal responsibility is necessary in replacing the jail. While many factors will require consideration, we will echo something The Columbian wrote editorially in 2017: “If a family member were a jail employee, what kind of facility would you desire their work place to be? Would you want them to feel unsafe in an overcrowded and outdated facility, or would you want to have the latest in safety precautions?”
All of that should help guide the remainder of the commission’s work. Updating the jail to better serve the needs of a growing county, inmates and corrections officials is a daunting task. But in focusing on flexibility and the ability to easily expand in the future, planners are moving in the right direction.
