Sheriff secures short-term fix for jail crisis

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By Oregonlive.com

Published: 08/08/2005

Clackamas County, Ore., judges on Thursday broke a month-long impasse and agreed to let the sheriff place more prisoners in electronic home detention to ease a staffing crisis at the county jail.
However, the order filed by the county's nine judges last week made it clear that the arrangement is temporary. It will give the sheriff time to beef up jail staffing so he can avoid long-term jail bed closures.
"It really brings us a reprieve," Sheriff Craig Roberts said.
The order means the judges will go along with an emergency two-year jail staffing plan that has been discussed in different forms for months. It calls for hiring five new jail deputies this year and increasing the offenders monitored in electronic home detention from about 40 to 80.
Roberts said he thinks he can operate the jail under the plan with no immediate reductions in capacity.
The jail has been dogged by inadequate staffing and exorbitant overtime costs in recent years. There aren't enough full-time deputies to supervise the 350 jail beds in use, so jail deputies work mandatory overtime shifts.
The jail already gives early release to thousands of inmates each year. Most of those released are awaiting trial for nonviolent crimes.
Other counties have similar jail capacity problems. Washington County is starting an electronic home detention program this week that uses a global positioning system to keep track of inmates.
In Multnomah County, a work group is studying administrative cuts that could open jail space that sits unused.
Roberts, who took office in January, had planned to close 76 Clackamas County Jail beds last month to save on overtime and help balance his budget. He said the closure of as many as 96 more beds was possible later in the fiscal year.

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