Washington Rural Jails Network
By Jennifer Schwartz, Jennifer Sherman, Clay Mosher, Christian Maynard, Megan Parks, Marisa Cervantes, Sandra Yokley.
Okanogan County Spotlight
Sheriff’s Offices in Ferry, Grant, Kittitas, Okanogan, and Whitman counties shared jail data for January 2015 to June 2020
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.
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 jail entry.
- Some 11 percent of pretrial jail admissions were for DUI.
One in three people were booked into jail pretrial for failure to appear
- Failure to Appear, 29%
- DUI, 11%
- Holds, 10%
- Assault, 10%
- DWLS, 6%
Monthly pretrial and total jail admissions, 2015-2019
Admissions averaged about 200 admissions from 2015 to 2019
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, 5%
- DWLS, 5%
- DUI, 22%
- Assault, 13%
- Failure to Appear, 21%
- Three or more bookings
- Drugs, 6%
- DWLS, 6%
- DUI, 3%
- Assault, 7%
- Failure to Appear, 36%
Average # of pretrial days spent in jail by charge
- Average (all offenses), 16
- Theft, 22
- Drugs, 22
- Failure to Appear, 18
- Assaults, 15
- Holds, 12
- DWLS, 9
- DUI, 4
% of people who spend 24 hours or less in jail pretrial by charge
- Average (all offenses), 37%
- Theft, 23%
- Drugs, 26%
- Failure to Appear, 32%
- Assaults, 35%
- Holds, 37%
- DWLS, 49%
- DUI, 63%
Two out of 3 people jailed pretrial for failing to appear stayed longer than a day. Most (63%) jailed pretrial for driving under the influence were released within 24 hours.