Change triggered by unexpected staffing shortage

EPHRATA – Due to staffing shortages, Grant County officials are making the unprecedented decision to move all inmates from the Work Release Center into the main county jail, according to law enforcement.

Inmates and staff members with the program will be moved to the jail from March 1 to June 1, due to a temporary 11-person, or 20 percent, reduction in corrections staff across both the jail and Work Release Center. The reduction was spurred by a surge in requests for medical leave, as well as a number of staff transferring or undergoing mandatory training.

The move closely follows an announcement at the beginning of the month that visitation hours at the county jail would be slashed in half, due to staffing shortages after two corrections deputies requested medical leave.

In total, 22 inmates from the center will be moved to the county jail, increasing the facility’s inmate population to 173, a little more than double what the jail was originally designed for. The jail has housed up to 200 inmates at times in the past, said Chief Deputy Joe Kriete, but not without causing difficulties for staff and inmates alike.

Hoping to prevent the jail population from rising any further, Kriete said that officials hope to be able to extend current restrictions until June. As of Wednesday, the jail was on restrictions for both men and women, meaning that the jail does not accept new inmates of either sex unless they are a mandatory arrest or charged with a felony.

The Work Release Center, located at the Port of Ephrata, was designed to provide low-risk inmates an alternative to standard incarceration when it opened in 1999. The program allows some inmates to maintain employment during their sentence, advance their education and take part in work programs for government agencies and nonprofits.

Despite the name, the vast majority of inmates at the center are not work release inmates – those who leave during the day to work at their jobs and then return at night.

In fact, out of 22 inmates at the center, only one is enrolled in the work release program, a Douglas County resident, Kriete said. Another five people serve their sentence through house arrest while enrolled with the program.

The Work Release Center has long since been converted into another minimum security housing area for the over-capacity jail, much like former storage and recreational areas in the jail itself.

It’s unclear whether the single work release inmate housed at the center will be moved into the county jail, Kriete said, or whether he or she will also be placed under house arrest.

Though individual inmates or small groups have been transferred from the Work Release Center to the jail in the past, Kriete said that he has never seen the entire center’s population have to be moved, nor this many corrections staff requesting temporary leave at once.

“I feel bad about our staff, and this is all unforeseen circumstances,” Kriete said. “It’s unfortunate that it all happened at once, but at least there is an ending in June.”

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.