Commissioners explain county needs

RITZVILLE - In a little bit of a role reversal, Adams County commissioners were able to make a pitch to office visitors, instead of the other way around.

John Culton, president of Culton Consulting and Licett Garbe, a spokeswoman for Sen. Patty Murray, visited with commissioners Dec. 10, mostly to listen to their needs. Commissioner Dan Blankenship was not present, but Commissioners Mike Garza and Jay Weise were, along with Adams County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Flyckt.

After some professional introductions, Garza launched into the conversation.

"It's imperative that we get our jail back open," Garza said. "Until we get that building open and functioning again, I think it will be a great weight off my shoulders."

The jail has been closed due to building conditions and staffing difficulties.

Garza soon transitioned into thanking the visitors for assistance and support with construction of county roads and bridges, but the topic quickly turned back to the county jail.

"Sustainability is what I worry about," Weise said. "We can put a new jail up, but... when I talk about the jail, I still need to be able to staff it. We don't need a criminal justice fix, but an adjustment. We don't have the revenue to do that. I can build a grand jail, but I still can't afford to put anybody in to run it."

Weise had an outline for mission creep that been affecting local and county governments for several decades.

"Corrections officers in this state have taken the short end of the stick," Weise said. "Back in the day when jails were built, they were built to just house criminals. They weren't built to deal with behavior, health, substance abuse. We don't have the programs in each of our counties to deal with those folks. and those folks take up an enormous amount of our time. So how do we adjust that problem so that we can actually get them the services that they need?"

Garbe and Culton quickly suggested therapeutic courts or drug courts s used in Stevens County.

"Because of what we're doing with healthcare within the state, we seem to have dollars that we leave on the table," Weise said.

Weise said the county had scheduled a hearing in Othello the next day, Dec. 11, regarding homelessness.

"Whatcom County was trying to build a new jail for years, and was always getting pushed down," Weise said. "They looked at that different and said that we need to put services in for all the people who touch the jail, not just the criminals."

"I can share the two projects that the office funded for Stevens (County), if that's something you guys want to look at," Garbe said.

"I think we may have sufficient tools within the county to address treatment type things," Flyckt said. "Where we don't have resources, is does the court system have staff for that? (Although) we do have some treatment ability through our integrated healthcare services."

Garbe said Murray's current grants director started work just two week ago.

The topic shifted to the considerable possible expense for Adams County to hire a coroner.