Rural WA Jail Trends

Download Overall Findings Poster (.pdf)

Pdf of the overall findings

Washington Rural Jails Network

By Jennifer Schwartz, Jennifer Sherman, Clay Mosher, Christian Maynard, Megan Parks, Marisa Cervantes, Sandra Yokley.

The project had several goals

  • Gather and analyze administrative jail data from select rural counties in Washington.
  • Build knowledge of specific factors affecting jail population trends.
  • Gain perspective of justice-involved people and justice staff via interviews
  • Share lessons from research and data analysis with local representatives and stakeholders.

Sheriff’s Offices in Ferry, Grant, Kittitas, Okanogan, and Whitman counties shared jail data for January 2015 to June 2020

Key Facts

  • Failure to Appear was the dominant driver of pretrial incarceration and jail re-entry.
  • Driving with a suspended license was a common mechanism for pretrial jail entry.
  • Most assaults (68%) were related to domestic violence.
  • Some 7 percent of pretrial jail admissions were drug-related.

One out of 5 people were jailed pretrial for “failure to appear”

  • Failure to appear, 21%
  • Assault, 10%
  • DUI, 10%
  • Drugs, 7%
  • Driving with a license suspended, 7%

Pretrial jail admissions were stable prior to decreases during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

Rural Context:

Rural counties face resource constraints, staffing shortages; limited health, mental health, and substance treatment services; and scant communication, transportation, and legal infrastructure.

Failure to appear is a significant driver of reentry

  • One booking
  • DUI, 16%
  • DWLS, 10%
  • Failure to Appear, 11%
  • Assaults, 14%
  • Thefts, 4%
  • Drugs, 7%
  • Three or more bookings
  • DUI, 6%
  • DWLS, 7%
  • Failure to Appear, 32%
  • Assaults, 9%
  • Thefts, 2%
  • Drugs, 7%

Most drug-related pretrial jail admissions involved meth or unknown drug type

  • Unknown, 44%
  • Meth, 30%

Average # of pretrial days spent in jail by charge

  • Average (all offenses), 10
  • Drugs, 14
  • Thefts, 12
  • Assaults, 10
  • Failure to appear, 8
  • DWLS, 6
  • DUI, 5

% of people who spend 24 hours or less in jail pretrial by charge

  • Average (all offenses), 39%
  • Drugs, 31%
  • Thefts, 37%
  • Assaults, 49%
  • Failure to appear, 39%
  • DWLS, 46%
  • DUI, 60%

More than half of individuals booked into jail pretrial for failing to appear stayed longer than a day. Most (60%) jailed at arrest for driving under the influence were released within 24 hours.