County’s budget woes pinch jail utilization

By Steve Tool

Wallowa County Chieftain

Wallowa County Sheriff Steve Rogers may be doing his job too well. And that could be a problem.

Recent efforts to take a bite out of crime –– particularly drug dealing –– have resulted in higher than customary costs for incarcerating those arrested in the process.

“I know they’re broke. I know they’re out of money, and I understand all that,” said Rogers, referring to Wallowa County officials. Rogers has expressed concern with a Wallowa County Budget Committee suggestion that the sheriff’s office reduce the number of criminals it sends to jail.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Deputies and officers from the Enterprise Police Department have collaborated on a number of high profile drug-related busts in the past year.

The efforts have removed a number of felons from the street or forced them to flee the county.

The effort began to reap results about the time Wallowa County discovered it would be losing nearly $1 million in Secure Rural Schools funding. The county has been scrambling to find options to make up the deficit, including cutting the sheriff’s budget.

Depending on the final budget numbers when it is adopted later this month, Rogers says he may be forced to make a difficult choice: Delay hiring a much-needed deputy or curtail the number of criminals that law enforcement sends into the jail system.

“I’m not going to cut the damn jail; these people need to be there,” the sheriff said. “I would 10 times rather explain to the commissioners that I’m over budget from doing my job than answer to a bunch of angry citizens because I didn’t do my job.”

Until February 2016, Union County housed Wallowa County inmates. The sheriff’s office, which handles all of the prisoners taken into custody, changed gears and selected Umatilla County for prisoner housing services. Rogers offered a variety of reasons for the move that included costs and a lack of space in Union County.

“We knew when we started the Street Crimes Team to clean things up around here, it was going to be a tough year –– that we were going to be well over budget on jail space, and we were. But now we’re starting to see the fruits of our labors because our jail population is dropping,” Rogers said.

To keep costs down, no one taken into custody is transported to the Umatilla jail without the express permission of either Rogers, chief deputy Fred Steen or community corrections officer Kyle Hacker. “There’s certain people I am not going to release. I just won’t do it,” Rogers said.

Steen also cited the effectiveness of the county’s community corrections (parole and probation) force as a factor in the temporary prisoner glut. He said that the county once contracted with an adjacent county to run parole and probation, and it didn’t take criminals long to figure out they weren’t being held accountable, and they returned to criminal behavior.

“That’s not happening any more, and that’s one of the main reasons you see a spike in people going to jail,” Steen said. “They’re being held accountable for the first time in decades, and that costs money. There is a tremendous number of criminals, mostly small-time criminals, but there are some larger ones, living here and frequenting here.”

The county’s community corrections department currently supervises around 130 people.

Housing criminals in Wallowa County is problematic.

The county has a six-cell jail that functions as a temporary holding station in the justice center, 104 W. Greenwood St., Enterprise. The facility can’t hold prisoners for more than 96 hours at a time, and it would take more than a million dollars to upgrade to allow longer-term stays.

The county would also get soaked for the five additional personnel needed to operate the jail as a full-time institution. A number of other cost-prohibitive improvements would also be necessary. It has no exercise yard, no legal library and a host of other amenities required under state law.

Rogers said the jail is getting much more use than in previous years.

Although Rogers believes his office has a great deal of community support for its law enforcement efforts, he doesn’t believe a specific levy would receive taxpayer approval.

“I’ve never brought it up because I know the feelings about taxes and levies around here,” Rogers said.

Rising criminal activity may eventually mean more and better law enforcement facilities.

“We’re dealing with a system that is still operating at ‘80s and ‘90s population level with a criminal element that has grown substantially over the years,” Rogers said. “They still want to believe that little old Wallowa County only has one, two or three crooks in it from time to time, but it’s just not true. We have people living here who are a continuous problem to the community.” He added that he believes without the legitimate threat of jail, the county’s recidivism rate would skyrocket.

Umatilla County provides seven prisoner beds to the county at a cost of about $140,000 a year. The county pays for the beds regardless whether they are occupied. The jail supplies additional beds as needed at a higher rate.

Over the past year Umatilla has simultaneously housed as many 17 Wallowa County prisoners. Statistics provided by the Umatilla jail show usage peaked in July 2016 and April of this year.

Last week, Umatilla was hosting four of the county’s inmates.