PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners will take the first step today toward easing chronic overcrowding in the county jail.
Meeting at 10 a.m. in the Clallam County Courthouse, they are expected to approve a $70,000 contract that mostly will fund a study of remodeling the jail’s Special Detention Unit.
Robert Glass and Associates, a Spokane architectural firm specializing in security services, will study the feasibility of reopening the detention unit, also known as the SDU.
The low-security wing was shuttered in 2002 due to budget cuts but could house 24 more inmates.
Glass and Associates also will explore expanding the jail into the courthouse proper, study courthouse security upgrades, and examine installing a new camera system in the Juvenile Detention Facility.
Over 96-inmate capacity
The jail’s designed capacity is 96 inmates, but it held 121 persons last weekend and has housed more than 130 on occasion.
The county’s 2006 budget includes $500,000 for remodeling the SDU, but it funds only one new corrections officer.
Three to four officers will be needed to staff a remodeled unit.
At the commissioners’ work session Monday, County Administrator Dan Engelbertson told jail personnel to estimate operational costs of an expanded jail.
In the meantime, commissioners have budgeted $20,000 for housing overflow inmates in the Forks city jail — roughly one or two inmates per day for a year.