Washington Rural Jails Network
By Jennifer Schwartz, Jennifer Sherman, Clay Mosher, Christian Maynard, Megan Parks, Marisa Cervantes, Sandra Yokley.
Whitman 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
- Warrants were the dominant driver of incarceration and jail re-entry.
- Two in ten jail admissions were for DUI
- Assaults accounted for one in ten admissions.
One in four people were booked into jail pretrial for a warrant
- Warrant, 26%
- DUI, 17%
- Assault, 13%
- Drugs, 8%
- DWLS, 5%
Whitman County Jail Admissions, 2020-22
Admissions averaged about 60 admissions from 2020 to 2022, with a sharp decline during 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.
Assaults were a key driver of pretrial reentry
- One booking
- DUI, 27%
- Assault, 22%
- DWLS, 4%
- Drugs, 7%
- Warrant, 15%
- Three or more bookings
- DUI, 5%
- Assault, 5%
- DWLS, 6%
- Drugs, 7%
- Warrant, 38%
Average # of pretrial days spent in jail by charge
- Average (all offenses), 10
- Drugs, 14
- Theft, 11
- Warrant, 9
- Assaults, 7
- DWLS, 4
- DUI, 4
% of people who spend 24 hours or less in jail pretrial by charge
- Average (all offenses), 44%
- Drugs, 26%
- Theft, 33%
- Warrant, 34%
- Assault, 48%
- DWLS, 61%
- DUI, 74%
Of those booked for warrants, few (34%) were released within 24 hours. Most (74%) booked for driving under the influence were released within 24 hours.