PORT ANGELES — Despite restrictions on what kinds of crimes will qualify an individual for a bed in the Clallam County jail, the number of people staying in the jail continues to exceed capacity.
On Tuesday morning, there were 139 inmates in the jail, said Sheriff Joe Martin.
The jail is designed to house 96.
The number of inmates dropped by two in the afternoon and by Tuesday evening was down to 130, which is still 135 percent of capacity.
Population spikes
Since December, when the jail instituted the four-level system for deciding which defendants should be given a bed, or a space on the floor, the rising jail population crested and subsided.
But the number spiked upward before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
“If you go into the weekend high, you’re dead meat,” Martin said.
The 139 figure is the most the jail has held since the restrictions were put into place, Martin said.
He said the increase may be due to an increase in court-ordered warrant arrests, which the sheriff is bound to honor.
“You can’t turn them away,” Martin said.
