COWLITZ COUNTY, WA - In the wee hours of Saturday morning, 201 prisoners shackled in belly chains and handcuffs were booked into the new Cowlitz County Jail.

Corrections workers quietly moved inmates out of the old jail in the Hall of Justice and into the new $12.6 million lockup just to south on First Avenue. The move went quickly and efficiently -- in stark contrast to the nearly 10-year county effort to fund and build the new jail. The opening of the new jail should usher in a new era of law enforcement in Cowlitz County --- one in which petty criminals can no longer thumb their noses at officials, knowing the jail is too full to handle them.

"We anticipate increases in the number of people incarcerated," said County Corrections Director Dan Price. "There are thousands of outstanding warrants in Cowlitz County.

"With the additional room, we can get more aggressive with those warrants. And, often when someone is arrested on warrant, they are found to be in possession of drugs or weapons, and additional felony charges are added."

The new jail has 306 beds. The old jail, which will be refurbished, will have 220 beds, some of which will be leased to the state to house parole violators.

Corrections officials chose to move prisoners of the middle of the night for security and logistical reasons. Staff didn't have to feed inmates, and inmates were more likely to cooperate in the wee hours.

"Everyone is pretty quiet," said corrections officer Paul Curtis, working the control panel at the old jail as inmates were herded into vans in the basement sallyport. "That's another advantage to moving them at this time -- they're sleepy."

Cowlitz County sheriff's deputies were posted on either side of the old jail to stop traffic periodically as two vans with 10 inmates each transported inmates from the old lockup to the new.

"We're not overly concerned about security risks," Price, the corrections director, said just after midnight as the move began. "The sheriff's office has developed a good security plan."

The date and time of the move had been kept under tight wraps. Even after the inmates knew the day of the move, they didn't know the sequence. For someone to attempt to spring a friend or relative, they would have to interfere with every van, and that wasn't going to happen with sheriff's deputies on duty, Price said.

Officers of both the Longview and Kelso police departments also were aware of the timing of the transfer in case they were needed.

"The old jail is in Kelso's jurisdiction, and the new jail is in Longview's," Price said. Corrections officer Trevor Eades was running the state-of-the-art control panel in the new jail as the first inmates entered. From the elevated central location or on monitors, Eades could see everything going on inside and outside the jail and open and close doors with a touch of a button.