EPHRATA — Grant County commissioners voted Tuesday to permanently close the Grant County Work Release Center.

Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones proposed the permanent closure on July 15 and said the COVID-19 outbreak forced the initial closure of the work release center in March 2020 and it’s been closed ever since.

Ten people were inmates at the center, 1631 E. Division Ave. in Ephrata, when it was closed, said Joe Kriete, chief deputy for corrections for the sheriff’s office. The inmates went back into the regular jail population. Information on their status after they were returned to the jail was not available.

The proposal for permanent closure was prompted by a substantial shortage of staff and a change in the jail’s inmate population. There were 14 open positions for corrections staff, Jones said, which is about the number of people it takes to operate the work release center.

The center is a minimum security facility and inmates must meet specific criteria to be housed there. Jones said the coronavirus pandemic forced the GCSO to reduce the inmate population and the only people kept in the jail had medium security or maximum security designations and were remanded to custody.

As the pandemic eases, the jail is allowed to house more minimum security inmates, but Jones said it’s probably going to take a while for that population to return to pre-pandemic levels. Whatever the inmate population, the work release center would not have been able to reopen until there were adequate staff to run it, Jones said.

The open positions were being advertised and the GCSO was receiving applications, but many of the applicants were failing the background check.

In a meeting with commissioners earlier this month, Jones said laws passed by the Washington legislators during the 2021 session and signed by Gov. Jay Inslee would mean further revisions to the rules governing who can and can’t be in jail. That, too, will have an effect on the jail population, he said.

If more minimum-security inmates are kept in jail, and if the open positions can be filled, the work release center might’ve been reopened, Jones said. But county officials also are in the process of building a new jail. Jones said earlier this month county officials hope to break ground on the new facility sometime in the next year.

The work release center was near the preferred site for the new jail. The county owns six acres at the site and is discussing buying additional property from the Port of Ephrata. If county officials buy additional property, the work release center would be remodeled as part of the new facility. Commissioners also have discussed finding an alternative site. If a different site is chosen, the new jail could, and probably would, have a minimum security wing as part of the facility.

If an alternative site is chosen and the facilities for minimum security prisoners are moved to the new jail, commissioner Cindy Carter said earlier this month she would prefer to repurpose the work release center for other county uses.