Asotin County

Poster

Download Asotin County Poster (.pdf)

Pdf of the Asotin County Findings

Washington Rural Jails Network

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

Asotin County Spotlight 2020-22

Key Facts

  • Failure to Appear was the dominant driver of pretrial incarceration and jail re-entry.
  • One in four jail admissions were for no contact violations (20%) or assault (4%).
  • One in ten bookings were for DUI.

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

One in four people were booked for “failure to appear”

  • Failure to appear, 26%
  • No Contact Violation, 20%
  • DUI, 11%
  • Failure to Comply, 9%
  • Assault, 4%

Asotin County Jail Admissions, 2020-22

Admissions ranged from 30 to 120 per month

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
  • Drugs, 3%
  • DUI, 17%
  • Assault, 5%
  • No Contact Violation, 24%
  • Failure to Comply, 4%
  • Failure to Appear, 15%
  • Three or more bookings
  • Drugs, 1%
  • DUI, 3%
  • Assault, 3%
  • No Contact Violation, 10%
  • Failure to Comply, 14%
  • Failure to Appear, 40%

Average # of days spent in jail by charge

  • Average (all offenses), 13
  • Assault, 25
  • Failure to Comply, 21
  • Drugs, 16
  • Failure to Appear, 9
  • No Contact Violation, 9
  • DUI, 2

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

  • Average (all offenses), 53%
  • Assault, 41%
  • Failure to Comply, 30%
  • Drugs, 34%
  • Failure to Appear, 62%
  • No Contact Order, 47%
  • DUI, 84%

Of those booked for failure to appear, 62% were released within 24 hours. Most (84%) jailed at arrest for driving under the influence were released within 24 hours.