Clallam County court officials will explore performing pretrial sanity assessments locally as one strategy to reduce overcrowding at the county jail.
In the meantime, county commissioners will continue to consider remodeling the jail and establishing a third Superior Court.
At a meeting Tuesday commissioners, Superior Court Judge Ken Williams, Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, Sheriff Joe Martin and others also discussed pretrial diversion programs, performance standards for courts and plea bargains as other tactics to reduce the population of the chronically overcrowded jail.
The jail, designed to house 96 inmates, held 132 prisoners Tuesday, Martin said, with an additional 11 lodged in the Forks city jail.
Ready to bid
Decisions are critical, commissioners agreed, because Phase 1 of the jail remodeling is ready to be bid.
Furthermore, the county’s contract to lodge inmates in Forks is running out, and a third judgeship must be authorized by the third week of July if candidates for the bench are to run next Nov. 7.
If the position isn’t approved before candidates file for office July 23 through 29, Gov. Chris Gregoire would appoint the judge. The appointee would face a special election the following November.
Commissioner Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles, asked if revenue from a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax for mental health programs could fund local assessment of inmates thought to have diminished mental capacity.
Currently such inmates languish in the county jail for six months before they can be examined at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, although state psychiatrists lately have begun assessing inmates in the jails where they are held.
