Sheriff plans to cut staff at Pierce County Jail
May 29, 2013, 11:23 AM | Updated: 12:37 pm
The Pierce County Sheriff plans to empty some jail beds and cut staff as revenues shrink.
The sheriff’s office is facing a $4.2 million shortfall in 2013 and sheriff’s spokesman, Detective Ed Troyer, said cuts are needed.
“The budget gap is so big that we’re going to actually have to close a couple of pods and we’re going to have to lay off some of our corrections officers.”
The problem is shrinking jail revenue. It’s cheaper for cities like Tacoma and Lakewood to use the jail in Fife. Both cities have signed contracts to send lower-level, misdemeanor arrestees to the 36-bed Fife facility for short-term detention.
Between March and May of 2013, the county jail took in almost 700 fewer arrestees compared to the same time last year.
The diversion of misdemeanor suspects leaves the Pierce County Jail with a more costly population of 84-percent felony prisoners.
“We also have a lot of people with mental health issues, we have medical and a lot of things that add expense to the jail that other jails don’t have to cover,” explained Troyer.
The result is that Pierce County plans to eliminate jail jobs to save money.
“We have to eliminate 30 full time positions, really hard for us to do without actually laying people off because over the last few years, we’ve already cut and trimmed and let jobs go through attrition,” Troyer said.
Based on the jail population this week, Pierce County would have to release more than 50 inmates to get down to a jail population supported by its budget. Sheriff Paul Pastor said there is no plan to release prisoners early.
