Whatcom County Jail is broken.

“This facility, in addition to being severely overcrowded, is physically failing,” said Chief Corrections Deputy Wendy Jones. “I’ve got people in this facility who are here for first and second degree assaults and homicide and rape.”

Guards were overwhelmed when a record 323 inmates filled the jail during Presidents Day weekend, exceeding its operational capacity of 212.

Now, only the worst offenders can be booked. And they are all packed into the most overcrowded county jail in the state, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs &  Police Chiefs.

Jones said the last mechanics to patch its aging security system called it the worst jail on the West Coast.

The  inmate population has crept back down to about 250 inmates since Presidents Day, but people who commit less serious misdemeanors are being let off easy.

Jones said when it was at its worst, nothing short of a felony would book someone into the jail.

The Vancouver Olympics sent police around the state out in force, which led to more arrests for outstanding warrants and driving violations, Jones said.

“The good thing is, taxpayers were getting their money’s worth,” she said. “I mean, [the police] were not just sitting around drinking coffee.”

The overflow rooms now stand empty, but the cells remain cramped as ever.

There aren’t enough bunks to go around on the jail’s second floor, where the main population is kept. Originally built with 64 beds, three times as many inmates are now stuffed into the same space.

A third of them sleep in what the guards call “boats.”

“Take a look at these,” says Deputy Tim Kiele, pointing to a stack of thick, green plastic shells. “The mattresses go inside of there, and essentially that’s so they aren’t sleeping on the floor.”

Each of the floor’s six cell blocks is surrounded by rough concrete walls. Clear plastic mugs and playing cards litter the tables of common areas.

Against the frosted window of one cell, saltine boxes and old newspapers block out the afternoon sun.

With little else to do, inmates get creative with their makeshift beds.

“They’ve used them to slide down the stairs with, just for fun and games,” Kiele says. “If they were to use them as a barricade…” He pauses. “We’d have a problem.”

The prison enforces a dress code. The men shave once a week and shower every three days.

“If you look back here, we have two showers for 36 inmates,” Kiele says. “Put somebody in a college dorm, your whole floor, and give them two showers—what do you think is going to happen?”

The cells are not monitored by cameras. Guards watch at intervals from a distance, behind two layers of Plexiglas.

“We look in the window and they’ve got black eyes,” Deputy Jacob Esparza says. “In jail, people won’t tell you anything. So, ‘I slipped and fell in the shower.’ ‘You slipped and fell in the shower six times?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Ok.’”

Downstairs in booking, it’s just as crowded.

The jail has two drunk tanks for the whole county, so violent alcoholics and drivers with DUIs are kept in the visiting booths when there is nowhere else to put them, Esparza says.

“In King County, they’ve got 25, 30, 40 of those tanks,” he says. “When the shit hits the fan, it can get pretty dangerous.”

Last year, staffing cuts reduced visiting hours from four days a week to weekends only. Deputies often have to run the reception desk because of the cuts.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the medical staff doesn’t stay to pass out medication in the evening.

Kiele says most of the medications for mental disabilities are passed out on the third floor, where the isolation and overflow rooms are located. Female inmates are at the other end of the floor. Their cell blocks are about half the size of the men's.

“We can only let two cells out at a time because if we let them all out together—fights,” Kiele says, while a female inmate stares through the Plexiglas and caws at him like a raven. “We don’t triple bunk in here unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

What's being done

Voters approved a tenth of a percent tax increase in 2004 to help build a new jail. Some of that money was put toward the minimum security Whatcom County Interim Work Center, which houses about 150 inmates. Jones said that helped take off some of the pressure.

Whatcom County Jail was operating at more than 300 percent of its capacity before the work center was completed, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs.

The current full jail roster doubles the Whatcom County Jail’s operating capacity.

If approved, the new jail will be built on one of two properties near Slater Road, north of the Bellingham International Airport.

“Realistically,” Jones said, “it’s going to take about 10 years to get the thing done.”

The goal is to build a jail with 1,000 beds, which should be adequate for expected needs in 2020, Jones said.

It will be a long wait for some inmates, and the deputies too. But Kiele, who has worked as a guard for 17 years, is willing to be patient.

“That’s one of the reasons why I transferred from Chelan County over here,” he said.

Share this article:
                                   

Be first to comment on this article

Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.