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The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has rearranged inmates in the jail to boost capacity, cut back on nighttime releases for all inmates and keep more female offenders behind bars. The changes have increased the Jackson County Jail’s 292-bed capacity to 300 inmates during the day and 315 during the night, when inmates are sleeping and easier to supervise. “Every bed makes a difference,” said Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler, who credited jail staff members with coming up with the reorganization plan. Female inmates previously were housed on the jail’s ground floor, with males in the basement and on the second floor. But the 42-bed female section was often filled past overflowing, triggering a disproportionate share of releases of women due to overcrowding. With women now in the basement, the jail can house about 60 female inmates, Sickler said. Having more beds for females could reduce strain on the local criminal justice system. Although there are fewer female criminals than males, women are more likely to skip their court appearances in Jackson County Circuit Court wasting time and causing more work for judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the police officers and deputies who have to rearrest them. Earlier this year, the local law enforcement community teamed up on a failure-to-appear initiative to hold chronic court skippers in 10 reserved jail beds until they cleared up their criminal cases. Of the first 13 people targeted, seven were women. Together, the 13 had accumulated 150 cases against them and had skipped 500 court appointments, according to data from the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office about the early impacts of the initiative. The jail reorganization also means jail officials will be less likely to be forced to release inmates in the middle of the night. “Releasing inmates at night isn’t ideal,” Sickler said. “What is the inmate going to do? If you kick them out of bed, what is open for them?” Inmates released in the middle of the night can’t access services such as addiction treatment, and they could commit new crimes under the cover of darkness, he said. “The things that are available to them at night are not healthy from an inmate perspective, and it’s not ideal from a community perspective. If they go out in the community and commit new crimes at night, that’s harder to spot,” Sickler said. Sickler said he and Jackson County Community Justice Director Eric Guyer have been exploring ways to link newly released inmates with services such as drug and alcohol treatment, mental health care and peer mentors. Sickler and Guyer toured a Clackamas County program in which released inmates are enticed with amenities like coffee and phone charging services to enter a space where they can also get information about services like addiction treatment. Sickler said the Jackson County Jail doesn’t have space to offer that type of program, but he and Guyer are exploring the possibility of getting released inmates to the Community Justice Building on West Main Street, where they could be linked with services that help break the cycle of crime. “That’s a gap we’re trying to bridge right now,” Sickler said. At the jail itself, efforts are also underway to add more mental health services, he said. Sickler said rearranging the jail has caused an uptick in the number of beds, but the number of beds is still far lower than what is needed for Jackson County’s current population. A 2017 audit concluded the jail, built in 1981, is too small and has an outdated design with long hallways that makes supervision of inmates difficult. However, a sample survey of voters commissioned by Jackson County showed a majority of voters would balk at paying higher property taxes to cover the construction and operation of a $100 million jail with 1,000 beds. The total added annual cost for that size of jail would be $218 for the owner of property assessed at $200,000. The 1,000 beds wouldn’t be needed immediately, but Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan has cautioned that the county shouldn’t build a jail that would be at capacity on opening day and be unable to accommodate future population growth. Local officials met earlier this week with an architect group to talk over jail needs and ideas, Sickler said. “We do not know exactly how many beds we need,” he said. “We’re not going to build 1,000 beds on our first go. It’s too expensive. My guess is we would build 600 to 750.” But Sickler said the new jail should have sufficient infrastructure, such as medical and kitchen facilities, to accommodate the addition of more jail beds in the future. Sickler said his goal is to continue researching space needs and costs so a funding proposal can go before voters in May or November of next year. He said the county will inevitably need a new jail. “Every year that we wait, the costs go up 5 percent,” Sickler said. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.